Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams
by Jdcrmn
Summary: After a series of dead end jobs, Ginny wants to live the big life the easy way, she decides to seduce Draco Malfoy and marry him and live the life of a trophy wife.
1. Ginny's Great Idea

Disclaimer: I don't own anything seriously, _nothing_.

Chapter 1- Ginny's bright idea

Ginny Weasley was sitting in her desk, filing. When her eyes came across a bank statement, Ginny frowned and put it aside, she had a policy, if she didn't know what it was she didn't mess with it until all her work was done, then she could go around investigating it.

"Uuuuuuh!" She yelled in frustration and slumped back on her seat, she looked up at the clock, _it's only eleven fifteen! How was that possible?_ "Who am I kidding? I hate this place!" Just then her intercom buzzed and she pressed the button, "yes, Mr. Mentis?"

"Ginny could you come in my office for a second?" His gruff voice asked.

"Of course Mr. Mentis." She said and hated herself; whenever she spoke to him she was this overly cheerful person that just wasn't her. She stood up and walked over to his office smoothing down her robes and buttoning them up to the very top even though it was slightly uncomfortable. She opened the door and walked in confidently smiling.

"Ginny have you finish that filing?" He asked.

"No sir, I was just working on that." She said, her smile faltering as she waited to see what he wanted.

"That's okay. Can you come up to my desk?" He said with a faraway look in his eyes as if he was contemplating something serious, she walked up to the desk, nervous, something didn't seem right. "Sit down." She sat carefully folding her legs at the ankles and making sure that no part of her legs could be seen. "I've been evaluating your work and it is excellent."

"Thank you sir." She said smiling genuinely.

"I was thinking you need a raise." He said standing up and pacing to the other side of the room; she turned her head to keep eye contact. "Unfortunately there is one area that you seem to be having trouble with." He said walking towards her and placing his hands on either side of her chair, she sat back trying to get away from him.

"What area sir?" She asked knowing the minute she said it, it was the wrong thing.

"Ginny," he began raising his hand to her face, but he never got a chance to finish because in the seconds it took for him to raise his hands, she had pulled out her wand and cast the Bat-Bogey Hex. "Aaaaaaaaah!" He yelled falling back.

She stood up angrily and walked over to where he lay in the ground trying to smack the bogeys away. He was about to roll away when she lifted up her robes and placed her right foot on his throat. "You're staying right here, because I have a few things to say." She said enjoying this, her scarlet heels on his neck looked so cool, she'd seen it in a movie that Hermione had taken her to see once and it was empowering. "You are a fecking bastard. You- aaaaah, you know I had a whole speech worked for the day I quit, but I can't remember one fecking bit of it, so- I quit!" She said removing her foot from his throat and using it to kick his stomach.

She then stomped out of the office grabbed her handbag from a drawer in her desk and stomped out of the building. She stopped just outside the door, surprised by the fact that even though she'd been working there for almost two years she didn't have any personal belongings there, _it's almost as if I'd known from the very beginning I wouldn't be there long_. She looked around and walked into a side alley and apparated to The Leaky Cauldron. She handed Tom a Knut and he gave her a pinch of floo powder. She stomped over to the fireplace and dropped it in and yelled, "The Athenaeum," then stuck her head in, "Hermione!"

"Ginny!" Hermione came running into the room where the fireplace was, "is everything okay?"

"Yes, come to The Leaky Cauldron!" Ginny said and pulled her head from the fire, "Why?" She heard Hermione yell.

She threw herself in a chair close to the fire, about five minutes later Hermione came out of the fire looking a little queasy, "I'll never get used to those things."

Ginny stood up grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the back of the bar, and then to the wall in the back.

"Ginny, would you mind explaining what this is all about?"

"We are having lunch," she said moving into Diagon Alley, it still pained her to look around and see all the new shops. The last battle had almost completely destroyed it and after they had won they had rebuilt, but it had lost its charm, the new buildings seemed out of place. She walked briskly down the street ignoring everyone even when they were directly in her path, causing several people to have to jump out of the way. Hermione walked behind her apologizing to everyone.

They finally reached a small diner called Potter's Place and Ginny began to enter it.

"We aren't supposed to go in there," Hermione said stopping in the street.

"I know that's exactly why we are going in; none of my brothers are bound to stumble in randomly." Ginny said and walked in, Hermione followed looking defeated.

After settling in with a menu, guilt finally set in. Harry was currently in the middle of a legal battle with the restaurant in order to get it to change its name and décor. It had been going on for about two years now, all that Harry had achieved so far was to get the owner to change his last name as well as his wife and children's to Potter. Harry even prohibited all of the family and all of his friends to come to the restaurant as that could be seen as supporting the enemy.

Ginny could see why Harry disliked this restaurant; the walls were covered in murals depicting his years at Hogwarts, although they had obviously been changed recently as he was blonde and not wearing any glasses. On one bulletin near the front there were news clippings about Harry.

"Ginny what is this all about?" Hermione asked finally.

"Now, don't give me a lecture," Ginny said cringing, "but I quit my job."

"How can I help you ladies?" The waiter asked having just walked up to the table.

Ginny saw Hermione closed her mouth and looked upset, she had obviously been about to yell at her, "I love you," she said to the waiter and he looked taken aback. "I'm sorry," she said and proceeded to order.

When the waiter left with their orders Hermione looked much more controlled, "what happened?"

"He as much as told me that if I didn't fuck him he wouldn't give me my raise, a raise I deserved, I raise I should have gotten regardless, as it _was_ in my contract. He made to touch me!" She exclaimed.

"Well, if you were dressed like that…" Hermione said gesturing towards Ginny's robes. While she had been waiting in The Leaky Cauldron she had undone the buttons of her robes quite a bit, from the knee down and enough in the neck area to reveal cleavage.

"I wasn't dressed like this at work, all the buttons were done up." She said.

"Well, it is a _bit_ tight up top," she said.

"It's what differentiates them from men's robes! My wardrobe isn't the point, he's a married man, and that wasn't the first time he'd made a pass. Besides, you're just jealous because you are as fat as a house."

"I'm pregnant!" Hermione said indignantly, just as the waiter came with their food.

"Besides that wasn't why I asked you to lunch." She ignored Hermione's snort and continued, "I was storming out of the building I work at- worked at- when I saw Lavender Brown," she also chose to ignore Hermione's scowl, "except she's Lavender Venable, now because she married that Richard Venable guy."

"He's seventy-three!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I know, but he's rich and that got me thinking," she ignored the sceptical look Hermione gave her, "that's the life; she doesn't have to do anything! That's the job for me, legal prostitution."

"You're moving to the Netherlands?" Hermione asked looking at her like she'd grown two heads.

"No," Ginny said as if Hermione's suggestion were preposterous. "I'm getting married."

"I'm not a prostitute!" Hermione said indignant.

"That's because you work and Ron works, it's a partnership," she said and saw that Hermione looked appeased, "I mean to lie about and do nothing, maybe give the guy an heir or two."

Hermione continued to look at her like she'd grown another head, actually maybe four or five more heads.

A/N: This has absolutely nothing to do with The Hogwart's Common Room. An athenaeum is a place of learning or a library. I thought it fit Hermione to name her home something so obscure and to do with books.


	2. Draco's Date

Chapter 2- Draco's date

"Hi! You are Draco Malfoy right?" Draco looked up to see beautiful blue eyes.

"Yes," he said standing up and moving to pull out her chair, "Claire Matthews?"

"Yes, well Pansy said you were a gentleman but you are exceeding my expectations." She said smiling up at him.

"Well, I've always received top grades so it's nothing." He said sitting down.

"You are _so_ modest," she said giggling and picked up her menu. Her wavy brown hair swayed softly, she was wearing robes the same shade of blue as her eyes and they clung to her body in all the right spots, her skin was lightly tanned and her lips were full and were lightly covered with gloss, she was beautiful, perfect.

He pulled his eyes away from her and while he perused the menu asked, "Why'd you pick this restaurant?" Laughing he added, "I don't think I'll be able to keep my food down if I have to see Potty's face everywhere."

Suddenly she placed down her menu, he followed suit and met her eyes, which were suddenly quite cold, "what did you call him?"

"Um, nothing. Just a nickname I had for him back at school." He said quickly trying to defuse the situation.

"You were at Hogwarts with him?" She asked excitedly.

"Yes, Pansy told me you attended Beuxbastons." He said quickly trying to change the subject but she wasn't to be deterred.

"You went to school with Harry Potter?"

"Yes, we were in the same year, but in different houses." He said tersely.

"You know Harry Potter?"

"No, thankfully I haven't seen him in about seven years."

"Thankfully? Why? You didn't get on in school?"

"That would be putting it mildly, we despised each other." He said intensely, _this woman is starting to get on my nerves_.

"You hate Harry Potter?" She asked appalled.

"Yes." He said relishing her anger.

"Why? He's the saviour of our world!" She said starting to get a bit hysterical.

"He killed the Dark Lord, big whoop." Draco said angrily.

"I bet you are a Death Eater sympathizer!" She said condemningly.

"A bit," Draco said sarcastically, "After all, my father _is_ in Azkaban."

"You… muggle-hater!" She said quite loudly.

"I don't hate muggles! I love muggles!" He said desperately looking around and seeing quite a few heads turned his way, "just calm down, please, I'll take it back!"

"No! I can't be seen with a muggle-hater!" she said quite shrilly drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant she got up and ran out.

"I don't hate muggles," Draco yelled after her standing up, "I love Muggles, I love Harry Potter! Why else would I be in this godforsaken restaurant!" He dropped several galleons on the table and stomped off toward the door, seeing red hair he turned toward it and saw the Weasley girl and Hermione Granger laughing like crazy, _great_, he thought as he left the restaurant, _just what I needed_.


	3. The Victims

Chapter 3- The Victims

Ginny sat on comfortable leather couch flipping anxiously through a Witch Weekly from January; it was the issue that showed all the most eligible bachelors in the wizarding world. She had just found the right page when Hermione walked into the room carrying several large books.

"What are those?" She asked putting aside the magazine making sure to lay it open on the right page. She stood up and grabbed half the pile from Hermione, "you shouldn't be picking up such heavy things you should have used your wand."

"Right," Hermione said blushing slightly, she had been living in the Wizarding world for about thirteen years now, but she still wasn't used to using magic for such simple things as carrying books. "These are the wallpaper books."

Hermione sat on the couch and grabbed one of them and began looking through it.

Ginny sat next to her and began to look through the magazine; she had a quill in one hand and began to read about the men, eliminating some automatically as too old, too young or too ugly.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" She said exasperated looking up from the book.

"I'm looking for my victim." She said.

"Is that what you are going to call him? You're victim?" Hermione asked astounded.

"Until, I pick one, and then I'll call him by his name." She said continuing with her reading.

"What happened to Brian?" Hermione asked, reminding Ginny of her ex-boyfriend.

_Ginny smiled at Brian. He was everything she'd ever looked for in a man. He was handsome, intelligent and brave. He was one of the finest Aurors and according to Harry was a great guy. He smiled back, he had the best smile she'd ever seen, it really warmed up his brown eyes._

_The door opened and her Dad pulled her into a hug, "Who is your friend?"_

"_Oh, Dad this is my boyfriend, Brian Sykes." She said and Brian shook Dad's hand._

"_Nice to meet you sir, Ginny has told me a lot about you."_

"_Nice to meet you too." He said and he led them into the house. The furniture had been replaced recently by Charlie who'd finally convinced their Mum that furniture was not enough thanks for raising them. She'd let go of the worn and beaten furnishings tearfully. Not that the furniture could be seen as they were currently buried beneath three children playing on a pile of orange streamers._

"_Aunt Ginny!" Yelled a black haired boy trying to untangle himself from a streamer. "It's my birthday!" He finally freed himself and ran to her wrapping his arms around her legs. He looked up at her with his clear blue eyes and held up four fingers, "I'm this old!"_

"_No your not, your birthday isn't until tomorrow!" Will said coming down from the couch, with superiority. He hugged Ginny and then looked at Brian, "who are you?"_

"_This is my boyfriend, Brian!" Ginny said happily taking Brian's hand._

"_Hi, and who might you be?" Brian asked holding out his other hand._

_Will ignored his hand an lifted up his chin and said, "my name is William Weasley J.R. and that," he said pointing at the small red head jumping on the sofa, "is my brother Arthur Weasley, he's named after grandpa, and this," he said indicating George who was still wrapped around Ginny, "is George Weasley and he was named after our uncle who died fighting Voldermort," Brian gasped at this, "and I don't like you."_

"_Will!' Ginny exclaimed, "apologize now!"_

"_No." The boy said and walked off into the kitchen._

"_Um, everyone else is in the kitchen you should go say hi to everyone, I have to stay here, I'm on duty decorating the living room with the kids." As her father said this a puff of smoke came from behind one of the chairs in the corner and two dark skinned boys crawled out laughing, flames coming after them. "Castor! Pollux!" He ran to them and picked them up gesturing to Ginny with the babies, she recovering from the shock ran to the chair and sent a stream of water to the flames behind the chair where they'd begun to consume a pile of streamers. Behind her she heard various people run into the room. Angelina and Fred ran up to them, each taking a baby from Dad's arms._

"_What did they do?" Angelina asked concerned, next to her Fred attempted to hide his smile behind Cas, though it didn't seem to work as she smacked him on the arm without looking._

"_They just started a little fire." Arthur said dismissively and began to move towards the kitchen._

"_Just a little fire? Our children are pyromaniacs, that's the fourth time in a month!" Angelina said sinking into the chair and holding Pollux against her as if afraid he would run out of her arms and set the house afire._

"_Come on Lina, it was just a fire," Fred said, "they're nine months old, they're not doing it on purpose!"_

"_Don't worry honey," Mum said as she walked towards Angelina, "these babies are angels compared to Fred and George and you don't have Bill and Charlie to chase after." She freed Pollux from his mother's grasp and placed him in the playpen on her way to the kitchen. "Come Ginny and bring Brian along."_

"_Yes, Mum." Ginny said smiling at Brian who seemed a little shook up; she loved it when people came to the Burrow for the first time. She grabbed his hand and led him into the kitchen where Hermione, Ron, Penny, Harry, Sally and Dad where seated around the table discussing The Electrifier. Well, Hermione, Penny and Dad were discussing it the others seemed to want to escape, but Hermione was resting her feet on Ron's lap and he was glaring at Harry begging him not to leave._

_Fleur was "helping" Mum, which meant talking about how great French food was while giving Mum suggestions. Mum nodded saying, "yes, dear" every once in a while and otherwise ignored her completely._

_At Ginny's entrance Harry stood up and Sally looking relieved stood up also. "Ginny!" Harry said hugging her, he then exclaimed, "Brian!" and proceeded hug him as well._

"_I'm glad you know our names," Ginny said coming out of her hug with Sally._

"_Brian, I wanted to talk to you about that rogue group of Death Eaters," Harry said ignoring Ginny and pulling a confused looking Brian outside of the house._

"_Hey, Sally so how's life with The Boy Who Lived?" Ginny asked taking Harry's seat next to Sally._

"_You're not supposed to encourage them!" Angelina's screeched from the living room._

"_It's great!" Sally said attempting to smile and only grimacing, "I love him, I really do, but I don't know. He's completely obsessed with this restaurant thing, and if he mentions it one more time I'm going to kill him."_

_Ginny laughed hysterically, "I'm – sorry!" A couple of minutes later she regained her composure, "I'm sorry, it's just? I thought you were going to talk about how being an Auror was dangerous or how closed off he gets."_

"_You don't understand, last night he started a fight with me because we hadn't won yet! We've been at this two years now, what does he want me to do? Then he completely blew up at me because I told him to give it up! He started on this rant about how where we'd be if he'd given up when he couldn't find the fifth horcrux. He's driving me completely batty." She said then started to laugh, "The Boy Who Lived taken down by a restaurant! In his honour!"_

"_Mum, where are Bill, Charlie and Percy?" Ginny asked._

"_Oh, they're out by the Quidditch Pitch I think," Mum called, "and that Brian's more attractive than you said he was."_

"_Mum!"_

"_Well, it's true sweetie, he's real quiet though," she said while pulling out one of the cakes from the oven._

"_Only because he's still in shock," Ginny said as Brian walked in from the yard, "speak of the devil."_

"_Ginny, can I talk to you for a second?"_

"_Sure," she said getting up and walking with him outside._

"_I've got to go, I completely forgot I had to meet a contact today," he said looking down at her guiltily._

"_It's Saturday, you haven't even met my brothers yet!"_

"_I already know Ron and I met Fred!"_

"_Listening to him fight with his wife hardly counts," she said as Angelina let out another shriek._

"_I'm sorry," he said and kissed her gently apparating away a second later. She walked back into the kitchen glumly. _

"_What's wrong sweetie?"_

"_Nothing Mum, Brian remembered a meeting he had."_

_She had put Brian out of her mind and had enjoyed the party, it wasn't often all the Weasleys found time to come together. She had just apparated to her apartment when she decided to surprise Brian. She quickly changed into her sexiest lingerie and apparated to his living room, she was starting to walk seductively to his room when she heard a giggle, a very feminine giggle, coming from his room._

"_The yard was full of gnomes and here's the best part, Harry Potter, _The_ Harry Potter, _the Boy Who Lived_, thought it would be fun to pass the time by de-gnoming the garden a bit, _'for Mum'_ he said." Brian's voiced drifted out to her. "Imagine voluntarily becoming part of _that_ bunch!"_

_Ginny was so hot she knew she must have been red from head to foot as she stomped into the bedroom. "You fecking bastard!" She said her gaze falling upon the very naked Brian who'd stood up abruptly upon hearing her approach, on the bed lay a brown haired woman who wasn't even trying to cover up._

"_Ginny! It's not what it looks like!" He yelled stupidly reaching for a sheet on the ground._

"_I don't care what it looks like, it sounded bad enough!" She yelled raising her wand at him._

"_I didn't mean it like it sounded!" He pleaded forgetting the sheet._

_She said a quick spell a grey light hitting his genitals, "What did you do to it?" The woman spoke up for the first time staring anxiously at his crotch where there was nothing to be seen. Brian stood there his eyes fixed in horror at where his penis should be. Without another word Ginny apparated home, _too bad it only lasts twenty four hours

"He's lost his appeal." Ginny said simply.

Hermione apparently decided to ignore it and continued to browse the book, "you're supposed to be helping me, not looking for a _victim_."

"I'd be easier if you knew the sex of the baby, there is a spell that will tell you quickly." Ginny said not looking up from her magazine.

"I know about the spell, I just don't want to know, I want it to be a surprise." Hermione said rubbing her large belly affectionately.

"You could close your eyes; I'll do the spell and then pick the wallpaper for you."

"But once I saw the wallpaper I'd know the baby's sex. Besides, that would involve you actually looking through the books, which is what I want you to do anyway."

"Fine," Ginny said putting magazine placing a large red X over one of the men, "what are you looking for anyway?"

"Something neutral."

Ginny flipped through one of the books disinterestedly until her eyes fell on a red and gold wallpaper. "How about you do it Gryffindor themed?"

"That's the one Ron wanted, but I don't want the child to feel pressured into being a Gryffindor. That way if he's sorted into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw he won't feel like he'd be betraying us somehow. Besides what if he's a squib? He'd feel horrible."

"Wow, you've put a lot of thought into this haven't you?"

"Of course. I want my child to be the happiest child possible; I want him to be the best, which means I have to be the best mother."

_Yeah like he won't feel pressured with _that_ attitude_, "But you and Ron are both Gryffindors and our whole family is Gryffindors."

"That's just it, the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Ravenclaw, and it told Ron he'd do well in Hufflepuff, and you just know Percy should have been in Slytherin, but Ron and Percy both chose to be put in Gryffindor because the rest of the family was in Gryffindor."

"Actually, come to think of it, George told me once the Sorting Hat had wanted to put him in Ravenclaw," she said remembering her brother's smiling face. After his death it seemed she would never be able to speak of him again, but with time she'd been able to remember all the smiles he'd created merely with his presence.

"See, I want to do my best to make sure that this baby can choose whatever house he's put in, even if it's Slytherin," she said with a grimace.

"You might have to work on that facial expression," Ginny said flipping through the book once again.

"Yeah, well, I'll change my mind the day I meet a nice Slytherin." Hermione said putting down her book and picking up another.

Two hours later they'd finally chosen a cream one that had a repeating pattern of toys. Hermione came into the living room carrying a tray covered in snacks, "well, now that we are done, it's time to rest."

"Look! It's Viktor Krum!" Ginny said sitting up.

"What?" Hermione asked a biscuit halfway to her mouth.

"He's one of the most eligible bachelors." Ginny said moving over so that she sat right next to Hermione and showing her the magazine.

"Well, he hasn't changed much." Hermione said looking over the picture and then grabbing another biscuit. Then her eyes widened, "you'd better take that magazine with you before Ron comes home."

"Why?" She looked at Hermione's panic, "you don't mean he's still upset over that, it was almost a decade ago!"

"Yeah, well, you know Ron, once he gets an idea there isn't anything that can dislodge it from his brain. Whenever he hears the name he seems to forget that we've been married six years and I'm carrying his child." Hermione said then started laughing, "The other day he was listening to a Quidditch game on the Wireless when the commentator mentioned Krum, he turned around so quickly, I thought his neck had snapped and he stared accusingly at me for the longest as if I'd been the one to bring him up! So I went to the loo, when I came back he looked so relieved!" Hermione exclaimed, "He really thought that hearing Viktor's name I'd realized my mistake and gone running to Bulgaria to profess my undying love."

"Ron's such a git," Ginny said chuckling and drew a huge X over his picture, "Krum's out, don't want to cause Ron a heart attack. Besides I'm hoping for someone more…British." Ginny turned the page and Hermione ignored her, eating her snacks and reading the newspaper. From time to time she heard Ginny saying things like, "Too old" or "too young" "divorced 3 times!" "doesn't speak English" "too tall" "too short."

After she finished reading the newspaper she looked up to see Ginny eating a biscuit forlornly. "What, have you run out of eligible bachelors?"

"Yes." Ginny said with a pout.

"Let me see," she said picking up the magazine, "although I still think your best bet if finding another job. What are you looking for anyway?"

"Someone 22-30 years old, anywhere from 5'7" – 6'4", that speaks English."

Hermione looked through the magazine, "well, there's Harry."

"Been there, done that."

"Eew." Hermione said smiling, and Ginny threw a pillow at her. "Well, there's Malfoy."

"After what we saw yesterday I think he'd rather date Harry!" She said and they both collapsed into a fit of giggles remembering yesterday's entertainment.

"The only other person that seems to fit is Prometheus Parkinson." Hermione said, "Why'd you cross him out?"

"Well, he was a Slytherin and he is Pansy Parkinson's older brother, that's bad news in itself, but even if I were to ignore that, look why's he rich and famous, he invented that contraption that let's you use Muggle devices."

"What's wrong with that? I think he's quite clever, I heard they've introduced a computer to the Hogwart's library; it makes it a lot easier to find the books than just using the card catalogue. I remember he was Head Boy my first year."

"It's not the Muggle devices, it's my father, imagine if he were to find out I was dating the man! Ever since he bought one of those he's been in that shed of his trying out all of his collection, Mum says she has to drag him out to get him to eat, imagine if he were to meet the inventor!"

Hermione nodded sympathetically remembering the crazy look in Arthur's eyes as he told her all about irons on her last visit to The Burrow. "I guess you'll just have to get a job."

That seemed to remind Ginny of her mission, "No, I'll go out with Parkinson."

A/N: This chapter takes place on March 11, 2004, Thursday, it is the day after Chapters 1 and 2. Ron's Birthday is on March 1st and their nephew George's birthday is on March 7th, the birthday party is on March 6th for both of them because it's more convenient for everyone that way. Yes, I named Harry's girlfriend Sally because of the movie, I saw it last night and just had to do it, her name originally was Camilla, I think it's a huge improvement.


	4. The Perfect Man

Chapter 4- The perfect man

Ginny didn't know how'd she'd managed it but after calling in a few favours from old school friends, she'd managed to find herself in the company of Prometheus. After involving him in a conversation about Muggles and being her most charming self, he'd asked her out on a date and here they were at a very expensive Restaurant. _This is the life_, she thought as Prometheus or Theus as he'd asked to be called ordered for them.

When the waiter walked away she spoke up, "So how did you come to invent The Electrifier?"

"Oh, don't call it that," he chuckled, "we just call it the converter, that whole Electrifier nonsense is the manufacturer's fault."

"It does sound rather silly," Ginny admitted smiling. _He's pretty nice, maybe this will work out better than I thought_.

"My friend Dan and I worked as Unspeakables in the Ministry, in Research and Development and we'd gone to the manor to visit my folks. A friend of Pansy's, that's my younger sister, showed up at the house one day to visit, he'd been living as a muggle for a bit and he was talking about missing watching the telly. He tried everything to hook one up, but his manor was rather old, older than ours if you'd believe that, and infused with magic and it interfered with the electricity. Anyway Dan and I had always been rather fascinated by Muggle technology and so we began playing with the idea. It was rather simple, electricity is energy and magic is a form of energy, so we decided that instead of trying to change the machinery maybe we should just find a way to convert magical energy into electricity and it worked! Now, one tap of the wand gives you up three hours of electricity, depending on the appliance of course."

"Wow," was all Ginny managed to say; she was completely fascinated by it all. "Are there any other projects that you are working on?"

"Well, Muggles have this telephone that's all the rage now, actually it has been for the past decade or so, but it's new to me." He said chuckling, "It's called a cellphone, and it's portable, actually everywhere you go you can see them with it up to their ear talking, it's a very innovative way of keeping in touch."

"That's what they're doing! I've noticed it as of late and thought they were all going quite mad talking to themselves!" She said smiling.

"Yes, well, I think that Hogwarts would do well, to make the Muggle Studies class a mandatory requirement," he said seriously, "we are sharing this planet with them and it'd do us well to learn more about them, especially as I don't believe we'll be able to keep hidden from them forever."

"That's what Hermione always says."

"Hermione Weasley? You're related to her?"

"Yes, she's my sister-in-law."

"That explains it, as she's not a red-head I always thought it was a coincidence." He said laughing. "She's done great things for the rights of House-Elves and now werewolves."

"Oh, yes, she started on House-Elf rights back at Hogwarts, called her organization S.P.E.W. which led to many arguments between her and Ron who insisted on calling it _spew_. Ron's her husband, and it really wasn't such a big deal that they had arguments," she said quickly hoping not to give the wrong impression of their relationship, "it was what they were known for back at Hogwarts, and even now after six years of marriage they argue all the time." Ginny said, "But Hermione isn't on the werewolf committee anymore as she's on maternity leave, not that you could tell, she pops in at the office all the time, checking up on things; it drives Ron mad."

"Six years? How can people who argue all the time have lasted that long?" Theus asked incredulously.

Ginny smiled, "they love each other, always have. The arguments don't matter much at the end of the day, because they both know the other will always be there, even if they can't agree on everything." Ginny saw a faraway look come on Theus' face. "Ron's very protective of her, he was always there to defend her and Hermione was always there to knock some sense into him." She said wistfully. "I frankly don't think either of them would have survived Hogwarts without the other, Ron probably would've flunked out and Hermione would never have left the library. Besides, the things they argue about have always been rather trivial, except of course when they were jealous, I almost thought they wouldn't survive _those_ fights."

"Jealous?" He asked as if in a trance.

"Yeah, before they admitted to each other that they were in love with each other, well Hermione and Ron both had relationships with other people and well you didn't want to be around them at that time, they didn't speak to each other for months in fifth year, well their sixth year, because Ron was dating this girl and-" Ginny stopped abruptly seeing Theus stand, "what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry Ginny, you are a beautiful, wonderful, intelligent woman, but I just realized I'm in love with Dan," he said breathlessly his eyes somewhere far away.

"You are leaving me for a _man_?" Ginny asked rather loudly receiving odd glances from the people around her.

"What?" He asked distractedly, pulling out a pouch of Galleons, "No, no, didn't I mention it, her name is Danielle." He placed down a rather alarming amount of Galleons, "that should cover it, I'm sorry Ginny, but I've got to go." He said and hurried away towards the entrance.

"Well, at least it's not a man," she said to herself, when she heard a woman yell behind her, she turned around in time to see a woman stomping towards the exit, "I didn't say that!" Draco Malfoy yelled from where he stood.

Remembering a couple of weeks before when the other woman had left him at Potter's Place Ginny couldn't help but laugh, they deserved it, _who'd be stupid enough to go out with Draco Malfoy?_ Then she remembered her mission and that he was the only other eligible bachelor, _well, I guess I am_. She stood up fixed her dress, grabbed her purse and walked over to his table where he sat poking a piece of bread viciously with a fork.

A/N: Next chapter might be a while, Draco as always just wants to be difficult!


	5. Misery Loves Company

Chapter 5- Misery Loves Company

"You're not having much luck with the ladies are you?" He heard a husky feminine voice say. He looked up to see one of the sexiest women he'd ever seen. She was wearing a long red muggle dress that was rather clingy, yet it was simple enough not to draw away from her. Her breasts were large but as she was very curvaceous it fit. Her lips were… set in a smirk as she watched him trail his eyes over her body. "Like what you see?"

He met her eyes and saw the mischievous glint in their amber depths, "very much, but I'm not in the mood to put up with weasels."

"That's too bad," she said slipping into the chair across from him. Draco couldn't help but be impressed by her behaviour; Ron would've gone red and made a scene if he'd said that to him. "I saw your date leave," she said, "and as I suddenly found myself bereft of one, I figured misery loves company."

"Yeah, well, no offence or anything, but women are crazy and I think I'd be better off eating my dinner by myself." He said and seeing that she was more amused by his comment than offended he decided to get her opinion, "what do women want in a man? I'm good looking, intelligent, rich, refined, yet last month I got dumped for being a muggle-hater and today I got dumped for saying that Muggles were better than wizards, neither of which are things I said."

She laughed at him, "I'm sorry, I was just remembering the scene at Potter's Place. I wish I could tell you what women want, but I can't even tell you what _I_ want."

"This is why women are so complicated, I can tell you what I want right now, I want a woman who won't be easily offended and who'll sit through an entire meal without walking out on me." He said passionately.

"Well then, it's you're lucky night." She said with a rather smug look on her face.

Just then the waiter showed up with Draco's order and was about to place a plate in front of her when he did a double take. He looked questioningly at them, but neither Draco nor Ginny hinted that anything was wrong and he placed the plate down and backed away slowly as if worried he would be attacked at any moment. When the waiter was out of earshot Ginny burst out laughing and Draco couldn't suppress a small smile.

They ate in silence for a while until Ginny spoke up, "so…why did you go out with these women that walked out on you."

"Pansy," was all he said.

"What about her?" Ginny asked curious.

"She's so completely happily married that she insists that I should be too and she keeps setting me up with these women that," he gestured wildly and then growled in frustration.

Ginny laughed, "Sorry, you know it was her brother that just walked out on me."

"You were on a date with Theus?"

"Yes, one minute we're having a great conversation and the next he declares he's in love with some woman named Dan and leaves me!"

"Well, it's about time!" Draco said and upon noticing her frown quickly added, "You don't understand, they were driving me crazy I didn't think we'd ever go to market with The Electrifier."

"Wait a second; you're the manufacturer?" Ginny asked incredulous that a Malfoy would have anything to do with Muggle technology.

"Hell yes, it _was_ my idea. I wasn't about to loose all the profit that could be made from such an innovation." He said as a waiter walked up to them and brought them their dessert.

Remembering her previous conversation with Theus, as the waiter walked away Ginny asked, "You mean _you_ are Pansy's friend that lived as a muggle?"

"Yeah," he said shifting uneasily in his chair.

"You, Draco Malfoy, muggle hater, lived as a muggle?"

"Yes." He answered nervously; this vein of conversation was what had gotten him walked out on twice already.

"How was it?" She asked curiously and noticed his evident relief. She took a bite of her cheesecake to cover her smile.

He was completely surprised by her reaction, he'd expected the weasel to go crazy and try to hex him for lying or something, and answered quickly, "completely horrible, everything is about a thousand times more work! The only thing that helped me to survive was the telly." He said, "Snape did well by us and we were still relatively well off. I had this satellite; I got channels from all over the world and I must tell you that American Muggles are outrageous, there was this one show, The Real World, there are no words to describe it."

"Try."

He looked at her surprised anyone would be brave enough to boss him around, and then said, "It was lewd and vulgar. They fought all the time, they ran around half naked, and the women were loose!"

Ginny started laughing. "You're starting to sound like my Mum, next you are going to call them all Scarlet Women!"

"Yes, well, I didn't say I didn't enjoy the show." He said. "The only problem is that after all of the work with The Electrifier I still can't watch the telly."

"Why?"

"Well, it fixes the problem of magic interfering with the electricity, but magic still interferes with the signal, I'm making Theus work on it, but he's got this obsession with cellphones. I keep telling him it's the same problem, but he's so stubborn." He stopped and started to laugh, "Well, now that you've gone and gotten them together neither of them is likely to get any work done, so I ought to just get used to not watching the telly."

"You really didn't mind living as a Muggle?" She asked pushing her empty plate away.

"No, it definitely had its advantages." He said wistfully and took a bite out of his own cheesecake.

"I've always wanted to, live as a Muggle I mean, not forever, but you know for a month or so to see what it was like." Ginny said.

"You definitely ought to do it once; it's not something you'll forget quickly."

Ginny noticed he'd finished his dessert and smirked, "so, now that we've finished our dinner and I've granted your wish I ought to go, it's getting late."

"What wish?"

"You said you wanted to finish a meal with a woman, well, I've done it." She stood up, "goodbye," and walked towards the exit, _come after me, come after me, come after me_, she chanted to herself.

A few minutes later she felt a hand at her elbow, "not so fast," he said and she slowed and turned to look at him, "the night's still young, let's do something."

"All right," she said trying not to jump with glee, _I'm really rather good at this seduction thing_.

Outside of the restaurant he turned to her and said, "you know Muggles have this concept of dinner and a movie, do you want to watch one?" Then added quickly, "a movie is a sort of play on a giant telly."

"I know what a movie is, Malfoy!" Ginny said laughing.

"You can call me Draco you know," he said then frowned.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"I just realized I don't know your name." He said scared and was startled when she laughed.

"It's Ginny." She said smiling at the look on his face.

"Well," he said surprised she hadn't yelled and stomped out on him, "what movie do you want to see, Ginny?"

A/N: April 2, 2004. I found it so hard to write this chapter, every time I started trying to describe Ginny from a man's point of view I kept falling in a fit of giggles or feeling slightly disgusted with myself as the feminist in me (deep, deep within me) felt that it shouldn't matter what she looked like or how large her breasts are, but isn't that the first thing a man looks at?


	6. The Problem with Ideas

Chapter 6- The Problem with Ideas

Ginny was covered in glue and nowhere near getting the wallpaper on the wall.

"So how was the date?" Hermione asked, her wallpaper neatly on the wall and she was starting to glue her second sheet.

"Great," Ginny said smiling for the first time that day.

"See, and you thought he wasn't your type!" Hermione said triumphantly.

"Theus _wasn't_ my type," Ginny said finally giving up on the wallpaper, "he ran out on me before the first course, I joined Draco Malfoy for the rest of my date, his ran out on him too."

"Oh," Hermione said distracted and then dropped her piece of wallpaper, "Malfoy? Are you kidding me?

"No, I'm not kidding," Ginny said ignoring Hermione's stare and stirring the glue, "we had a lot of fun."

"Malfoy, really?" Hermione asked if unsure whether or not Ginny was playing some sort of a joke on her.

"Yeah, Hermione, can't I use magic?"

"No," she said adamantly, "this is how my mother did my room; this is how I'm going to do my baby's"

"Well, then why isn't your mother here?"

"She's running late, there was a walk-in just as she was about to leave and since Dad was busy she decided to take it," she said moving toward Ginny and removing the stirrer from her hand, "but you aren't getting out of telling me about Malfoy. How did you even get close enough to him to go on a date, aren't there like shields protecting him from the likes of us?"

"Actually, he was a lot different than I remembered although he did call me weasel a few times."

"What did you guys talk about?"

"Our failed romances, actually it turns out he's friends with Theus and was the inspiration behind The Electrifier."

"Inspiration?" Hermione asked surprised, "What Theus was angry at him?"

"No. He lived as a muggle for a while, he missed watching _Coupling_, and his company makes them actually."

"Draco Malfoy, a muggle?" Hermione was astounded by this news, "He watched _Coupling_?"

"Well, he didn't mention it specifically but if you're going to miss the telly, Jeff ought to be one of the reasons."

Just then a car pulled into the driveway signalling the arrival of Dr. Jane Granger and the conversation was put to rest for the time being. Hermione ran out of the room to let her mother into the house and Ginny followed her out of the room. She'd acted a lot more nonchalant about this whole wife business than she felt and she knew Hermione was going to ask questions she wasn't ready to answer to herself much less to Hermione.

She walked into the library and passed her fingers over the books reverently. It was hilarious to call this room the library when Hermione's house was so aptly named, as there were shelves full of books in every room in the house. Although she wasn't obsessed with knowledge, ever since her first year at Hogwarts Ginny had been very respectful of books. She reached the end of the corridor and turned the corner walking toward the stairs in the corner of the room.

She reached the ground and looked up. The sight was amazing, Hermione and Ron had removed the floor in the first story of the house, leaving a small ledge around the room, and it had railings all done in a magnificent mahogany wood matching the wood of the shelves and the small circular stairs that she'd just descended. The main floor had a table in the middle and a desk on the opposite corner from the stairs. She loved Ron and Hermione's home, not only because it was much better than her four room flat, but because they'd made it together.

On one of the shelves sat a broom, Ron had told her it was the oldest surviving broom belonging to a Chudley Cannons member or something of that sort. She sat down in one of the comfortable leather chairs scattered around and looked around and could see one whole wall covered in Healing books, an empty coffee cup sitting on the desk, those were the things that she loved about this library the most, the things that marked Ron's presence. To the outsider it might appear that this room was solely Hermione's because of her love of books, but anyone that knew Ron could see that this was as much his room. They blended together so well, it might not be noticeable at first; that was what she wanted in her life someone that would complete her. She just wasn't sure if what she was doing was the right thing.

It had seemed so simple a month ago when she'd first thought of it, but after meeting Theus and after _really_ meeting Draco, she knew it wouldn't be that easy, they were people.

"Ginny!" She heard Hermione calling her, "where are you hiding? You aren't getting out the wallpapering."

"I wasn't, I was just taking a look around." She said getting up from the chair.

Hermione walked into the room and motioned for Ginny to come, then exclaimed, "Honestly!" She walked towards the desk angrily and grabbed the empty cup. "All morning your brother whines about drinking his coffee from his cup! Where did I put it, he asks me, and blames me for throwing it out and look where it is! If he were more careful with his things he wouldn't have to wonder were they are!"

Ginny stifled a laugh and walked out of the room hearing Hermione stomping behind her. "I should hide it! Make him take more care of his things!" Hermione mumbled on her way to the kitchen and Ginny made her way up the main staircase to go help Jane in the baby's room.

A/N: April 3, 2004. By the way I've never been nearer to wallpaper than wallpaper books at Home Depot, so I don't know nothing. Coupling is the best show in the world, I was so happy when they cancelled the American version, it was crap compared to the original.


	7. Waiting

Chapter 7: Waiting

Ginny changed the channel again and after turning it off, threw the control across the room, it had been five days since her date with Draco and he hadn't owled. She had, however received an owl from Theus thanking her for everything and telling her how nice it was of her to keep Draco company after he'd been abandoned on his date. He'd then asked Ginny to come to his flat for tea so that she could meet Dan. She'd responded accepting, it wasn't as if she had anything better to do and Hermione's constant prattle about babies was starting to get to her and if she asked for a change of subject, she was treated to a lecture on how the werewolf committee was going.

She'd have to find something to do soon or she wouldn't be able to stay sane much longer. She grabbed her purse and walked out of her flat and headed towards the general direction of Diagon Alley, she hadn't been there in a while and she might stop in on the shop and say hi to Fred.

About twenty minutes later she got to the shop and walked in, it was pretty quiet and she remembered that Hogwarts hadn't let out for the summer yet. "Welcome to Weasleys Wizar- oh it's you."

"That's a nice way to greet your sister." She said laughing and noticed he was hurrying forward carrying one of the twins. "Why've you got Lux?"

"Well, Castor's got a little cold and you know how Angelina gets, so I'm staying in the old flat upstairs with Pollux until Cas gets better." He said placing Lux on the counter where he immediately grabbed one of the fake wands and began playing with it. "But he misses his brother and as he's the more mischievous of two I can't get much work done with him here."

Ginny looked at him and saw how exhausted and upset he really was. "What's wrong, you're not just overworked." She said and reached out to pick up Pollux before he grabbed one of the more dangerous toys.

"It's just I don't like separating them, Angelina doesn't understand what's it like and I know Pollux would feel much better sick with his brother than-" he stopped abruptly and looked over her head at the picture of George she knew lay over the door.

"You've got us." Ginny said and wincing from pain as Pollux pulled her hair, she added, "Besides Lux knows that Castor is fine, look he's having plenty of fun making Auntie Ginny cry in pain," but her words were empty. She could tell the baby missed his brother, normally Pollux was never seen without a smile.

"Thanks," he said taking Pollux from her and disentangling the little boy's fingers from her hair, "what are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, can't I visit my brother?"

"Yeah, I mean, shouldn't you be at work?" He asked walking back towards the rear of the store.

Ginny could've kicked herself, she'd forgotten her brothers didn't know about her quitting her job, "I've got the day off. You know I really should run along this being my only day off this week I have lots of things to do."

"Okay," he said looking at her strangely, "I'll see you around."

"Bye," she said and practically ran out of the store, once out in the street she felt much better, although very stupid for having forgotten the reason Hermione had been her only company this past month.

She walked quickly down the street until she came upon the theatre, she walked up to the announcements board and began scanning it to see if there were any good shows soon, but instead a colourful sign caught her eyes. She scanned it and saw that there were going to be auditions for a play, it said to floo The Fabularum Scriptor before April 8th, 2004. "That's tomorrow!" she said startling a few people walking past. Making up her mind she ran to The Leaky Cauldron to use the floo.

She found herself in an office covered in posters of plays and walked up to the desk directly in front of the fireplace. There was no one sitting behind the desk and it was bare except for a sign that said 'Please Sign In and Take a Seat' and a sign in sheet. She scrawled Ginevra Wesley at the bottom of the sheet and saw her name glimmer for a while when it stopped she sat down on a chair near the seat. She wasn't exactly sure what she was doing there, she tended to act without thinking, but she had to admit it felt good to have something to do, even if it was waiting around till the end of time.

What seemed an eternity later, but couldn't have been ten minutes, a good looking man walked into the room and smiled at her.

"Hello, Ms. Weasley."

She stood up and shook his hands, "Hello."

"I'm David Fay, the director." He said and moved away from the doorway. "Come in."

She followed him into a spacious office and sat down on a chair he indicated. "I've never been in a play before and I just saw the sign a few minutes ago so I don't have anything to read but if you just give me a scene from the play I can do it."

He sat behind the desk and smiled at her as he picked up a large box from the side of his desk. "That's all right that's not how we do things around here." He opened the box and placed it in front of her. "If you'll just place your hand inside this box, it'll test your acting abilities and which part in the play you'd fit best."

She smiled and placed her hand inside of it, immediately a light blue glow emanated from the box enveloping her hand and then all of her, a few seconds later a script appeared under her hand.

"You've got the part!" David exclaimed.

"Which part?" Ginny asked pulling her hand out of the box.

Dave pulled the script out and read the top of the script, "Amelia, you're our heroine!" He handed the script to her and smiled. "I was starting to get worried; we've had plenty of women come try out, but so far nobody had fit."

"Wow! This is so amazing!"

"Yes, I just hope a couple more people come to try out we've still got two more parts to cast." He said standing up she stood up quickly and followed him to a door on the other side of his office, "just memorize your lines and come back on Monday at 8 on the dot. I hate tardiness."

Ginny clutched the script as if he might take it away at any moment and nodded, "I will, thank you!"

"Have a nice day." He said as he closed the door behind her.

She found herself at the end of a very long hallway and she walked down until she reached a set of stairs. She walked down three stories until she finally reached what seemed like an entrance. She opened the door only to find herself at Diagon Alley. She stepped outside and saw that she stood next to the theatre. "That was completely unnecessary," she said and began on her way home.

A/N: Wednesday, April 7, 2004. If you've read my other story then you know that David Fay is a Gryffindor in Ginny's year. This is not that David Fay, I am just horrible with names as you can probably tell from the titles of these stories and the chapters.


	8. Back to the Plan!

Chapter 8: Back to the Plan!

It was finally Friday and Ginny anxiously looked at herself in the mirror and smoothed down invisible wrinkles in her sun dress. She grabbed her purse and jacket and walked down to the waiting cab. She was nervous; she'd never gone to have tea at a rich person's home. The anxiety stayed with her throughout the whole ride and when the cab stopped in front of an apartment building she had to ask the cab driver if he was sure he had the right address, she'd been expecting a mansion.

She walked up to the front door and looked for any form of entrance nearby she saw a box with buttons that had labels near them. She read them and found one that read "403-Parkinson/Harris" and pressed the button. Moments later she heard his voice say "Hello?"

"Theus? It's Ginny." She said.

"Hey, I'll buzz you in." She had only seconds to think about what that might mean when she heard a buzz and a click from the door, she opened it and stepped inside to find a beautiful vestibule. There were a row of mailboxes on the left wall and further down the hallway could be seen apartment doors. On the right a beautiful wooden staircase led up and she started climbing up. She finally reached the fourth floor and stepped on the landing to notice the beautiful mosaic on the floor and paintings that covered the walls. This was definitely nothing like her apartment building; its walls were covered in thirty year old wallpaper and the floor in a carpet that looked twice as old. She walked until she reached a door that had the number 403 on a brass plaque she pulled back the doorknocker and let it fall. A few seconds later and beautiful woman opened the door.

"Hi, come in." She said making room for Ginny. "You must be Ginny, I'm Dan."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Ginny said walking into a large foyer. The woman was short and had long black hair that reached her waist. She was wearing dress pants and a white dress shirt.

"Come on the guys are in the sitting room." She said and walked across the foyer and into a room with open double doors. Ginny followed her into a large room tastefully decorated although there was what looked like ancient Muggle devices scattered about the room. Suddenly she was glad that Theus had been in love with Dan, the thought of dating someone with the same obsession as her father was terrifying. At the other end of the room talking sat Theus and beside him Draco and Ginny stopped walking. She hadn't been prepared to see Draco today.

Theus and Draco looked up as Dan approached and they stood up. "Hi!" Ginny said as she regained control of her feet and moved towards the couch. Draco walked towards her and hugged her. "I wasn't expecting to see you." Ginny said when he let go.

"Didn't Theus tell you I was going to be here?" He asked.

"I must have forgotten," Theus said sheepishly. "Well, we're all here now so why don't we have some tea?"

Tea with Theus was more than enough to make Ginny comfortable with her plan. The stories Draco told of his exploits in the muggle world while she'd been stuck in the middle of a war, a war in which she'd lost a brother, angered her.

Although his position on muggles and muggleborns had changed, he had not. He was still a stuck up, arrogant prat who thought of no one but himself. She played her part well and charmed all three of them and when it began getting late Draco walked her out.

"Do you want to get together soon?" He asked with a striking smile and she had to remind herself of who he was before answering with a smile of her own, "I'd love to."

A/N: Friday, April 8th, 2004!


	9. Quidditch in Heels

Chapter 9: Quidditch in Heels

The following week Ginny was delirious with happiness, rehearsals had begun and she now had a way to pass the time. She'd also found out the job paid enough money to cover most of her expenses making her feel relieved as she could now use her savings to pay the rent and that would probably last several months.

She had become friends with one of her co-stars, a short girl named Lenicia. It was a breath of fresh air as the only women she'd spoken to since leaving Hogwarts were Luna and Hermione that is if you ignored the existence of her various sisters-in-law, which was what Ginny preferred to do as all they liked to talk about was their careers and children, two topics that Ginny despised and Hermione was quickly falling into that pit. Luna had gone on a trip several months ago to central Russia in search of some creature or other. The only indication that she was still alive was a postcard Ginny had received on Tuesday and it had simply said: _Coming closer to the nest!_, whatever _that_ meant.

She examined herself in her hall mirror one last time. Her hair flowed freely down her back contrasting with her turquoise tank top, she'd opted against wearing a bra but it wasn't obvious. Her black skirt swung around her knees softly and she was wearing her favourite heels, they were turquoise although a slightly greener shade than her shirt. She was wearing the slightest touch of makeup, barely noticeable and no jewellery although that bit was more because she didn't own any.

The doorbell rang and she ran to it snatching her jacket from the peg beside it as she swung it open. She had just put it on when she looked up to see Draco looking worried and disappointed. She looked down at her clothes. "Is this not nice enough?"

"No! No! You look beautiful, but I was going to take you flying and-"

"Is that all?" She asked laughing. She grabbed her wand from her jacket pocket and transfigured her shoes into sneakers and her skirt into shorts. "Ready!" She smiled, pushed him back gently as he stood dumbfounded in front of the door and closed the door.

Marcus Flint was captain of the Caerphilly Catapults and looked as ugly as ever, although as he was smiling Ginny was disposed to like him. It also didn't hurt that Ginny being obsessed with Quidditch knew that thanks to him the team was positioned to get to the World Cup in 2006 and she was fighting the urge to ask for an autograph. When Draco told her they'd be playing with the team she almost fainted; somehow she managed to control herself and made it through the introductions.

"If I remember correctly you used to be a pretty good seeker in school." He said when they were waiting to be lent brooms.

"That was only a couple of times, I played Chaser mostly." She said watching him examine the brooms.

"Yes, well you beat me in fifth year." He said handing her a broom.

"Well, it wasn't very hard." She said smiling and flew off.

The team had split up into two groups of six, one dressed in scarlet the other in green, the two actual seekers lounged in the bleachers screaming obscenities at their team mates, Ginny joined the scarlet team and smiled at Draco who smiled wolfishly from the green team. The game passed by in a blur of colours. Ginny who hadn't played an actual game since Hogwarts was overwhelmed; fortunately Draco had seemingly no more practice than her and they spent the time watching the professionals and feigning they'd spotted the snitch.

Twice Ginny saw the snitch only to have it disappear on her, the second time she came very close to Draco and when she slowed down she caught him staring at her slack jawed, she looked down and saw her nipples pressing against her top; she turned around to hide her smile and continued the search for the snitch, _it seems I've made a good choice_.

Finally she saw Draco had spotted the snitch and was trying to furtively close in on it, she copied his strategy by continuing her lazy circles of the pitch all the while drifting towards the snitch. She saw him stiffen in preparation to speed up and she zoomed in so fast she thought she would fall off the back of the broom. She rushed past him startling him, but he caught on quickly and soon they were neck and neck the snitch flitting away faster and faster and before Ginny herself could recognize it her hand closed around the snitch.

She landed to the cheers of the scarlet and green teams. Everyone patted her in the back and she had absolutely no idea which team had won and when she looked at the scoreboard she noticed no one had been keeping score. Draco landed in front of her looking a little dissatisfied but otherwise quite pleased.

"So what've I won?" She asked him teasingly.

He walked up to her grabbed her around her waist so suddenly she gasped and he said, "A kiss." And he kissed her so skilfully that all she could do was cling to him and hope it would never end, however it did and he, grinning naughtily, said "see? everyone wins."

"Really?" Flint said suddenly reminding Ginny that they were in the middle of a Quidditch Pitch surrounded by people, "then where's my kiss?"

A/N: Saturday, April 16th, 2004


	10. Business is such a drag

Chapter 10: Business is such a drag…

Draco turned away from his thoughts of Ginny to look at his secretary and suddenly his mood turned dark. She looked worried; Cassandra never looked worried unless one of two things had happened: one of her nails had broken or she had bad news for Draco. As she was walking towards him with a letter he had a feeling her nails were just fine.

She dropped it on his desk and moved backwards quickly as if afraid it would explode or more likely _he_ would explode. He took a deep breath and picked up the letter. It was from the House-Elf Liaison Office and they were notorious for never giving good news. He opened it carefully wondering what violation he had made now; _did Stompy not have lunch last week? Damm you, Granger!_

He opened the letter and began reading it impassively.

"On our recent inspection we have discovered several violations of the House-Elf Rights code of 2002." _Why did they need to clarify? It was the only House-Elf rights code in existence._ "While all facilities meet standards," _Meet? They exceed standards and they know it. _He frowned and skipped further down, "one of your House-Elves has anonymously confessed your severe punishments." _What! When I find out who it was I'll kill the little bugger!_ He skipped further. "He has also informed us that you have not paid him one Galleon since the House-Elf laws were put in place…You are being fined 68,212 Galleons and 14 Sickles."

"Cassandra!" Draco yelled and she appeared at his door looking terrified, "Get me Dering."

"And you are sure you've paid them!" Luke asked raking his hand through his grey hair.

"Yes, I approve all the expenses personally." Draco said frankly. "I had Wheezy up here while I waited for you to arrive. He says he's personally paid the House-Elves. He's gone to get the paperwork. Unfortunately Battle is out sick and Alden has Mondays off.

"I'm sorry Draco there isn't much more I can do. Hermione Weasley didn't leave any loopholes. I've dealt with the House-Elf Liaison Office before. Those people take the word of a House-Elf as gospel." Luke stood no longer content with only tapping his leg.

"The company is just recovering and this _fee_ will set us back. We'll have to cutback on product development which is currently costing me a pretty penny, this will ruin me!" Draco said desperately trying to impart his frustration.

Luke nodded remembering when he'd first met Draco. It was about four years ago, Luke had just finished the war trials and was starting to regret his entrance into the wizarding world. He had begun to understand why his parents hadn't allowed him to enter Hogwarts when they'd discovered he had magic.

The wizarding world was strange, half the laws didn't make sense and it was driving him crazy to try and help sort through everything and see where the new muggle lawyers could fit into the justice system. It was then that Draco had shown up completely lost, if arrogantly in denial, looking for a way to get back at Jasper Rowley. Rowley had been the company's vice-president who'd taken advantage of Lucius Malfoy's changing priorities in 1992 and begun to slowly bleed the company dry, when he'd returned to the Wizarding world it had been to find out that he was in debt and in a completely new world. Luke had helped him file a suit and they had formed a strong friendship through which they had been helping each other cope in this brave new world. Draco had even taken Luke to buy his wand, _where did I put it?_

"So what can you do about it?" Draco asked desperately.

"There isn't anything I can do legally except delay the process as long as possible while you mount an investigation like we spoke of."

"All right, I've heard of this bloke, his name's Carwin. Some of my Slytherin mates say he's good; I'll try to get in touch with him." A soft knock was heard and Draco told Wheezy to come in.

The little elf sporting the white shirt with the letters ME monogrammed on it bowed so low his nose squished slightly against the floor, "sirs, it's a pleasure for Wheezy to be in your company."

"Wonderful," Draco sighed, "you can stop bowing." Draco was glad he'd made the House-Elf wear a white shirt, if it hadn't been for that he wouldn't have been able to tell him apart from the other 300 or so House-Elves running around in grey shirts and black trousers. "Wheezy, where are the papers?"

"Master!" The elf wailed kneeling so violently that Luke stepped back looking worried and scared, he still couldn't get used to the different creatures that populated the Wizarding world and to think he'd lived almost forty years without realizing he was sharing the planet with these creatures. "Me's sorry. Wheezy looked and looked and looked and looked-"

"I understand Wheezy you looked what happened afterwards?"

"They's not there! They's nowhere!" The elf moaned while Draco cradled his head in his hands. "Sorry, master, sorry!"

A/N: Monday, May 3, 2004. By the way I know that it doesn't seem like a lot of money but that's about $500,000! For something he didn't do! Either way Thank you to the HP-Lexicon for their Money converter I couldn't have done it without them!


	11. Work is such a drag

Chapter 11: Work is such a drag…

Draco looked at himself in the mirror as he buttoned his robes, the circles under his eyes made him look ten years older and he thanked God not for the first time in the last four years that he was a wizard. He pulled the wand from his pocket and did a small concealment charm, although unfortunately that didn't change the fact that he was exhausted. He threw one last longing look at his bed and apparated to his office.

He sunk down on the sofa wondering if, as he was already at work, he had a quick kip on the sofa that would be okay. He began to close his eyes when he smelled hot cakes and rushed to his desk where his breakfast was placed as always, Cassandra was amazing. He sat down and began devouring his breakfast, yesterday's stress had not only disturbed his sleeping but had made him forget all about his dinner and he hadn't had anything to eat since around midday yesterday.

When he was done he vanished everything and noticed a note Cassandra had left _Carwin, 9:00 AM_, below it was a pile of files that had been shrunken considerably, upon further examination he found that they were the copies of all his employee's files. Draco was glad, he'd spent all afternoon trying to get in touch with Carwin and had been unable, _whatever Cassandra did, after this mess is fixed she's getting a raise_.

The intercom buzzed and he answered it, "yes?"

"Carwin is here."

"Let him in," Draco looked at his watch and indeed it was 9:00 on the dot. The man that walked in was not what Draco expected to see. He was slender around fifty and looked _jolly_. He had a friendly smile on his face and wore a lime green tie. Draco stood to welcome him, "hello Mr. Carwin, and thank you so much for stopping by on such short notice."

"Just Carwin is fine," the man said sitting down, "I need the employee's files."

Draco was startled, "Of course, they're right here," Draco waved at the files and removed a box from his last drawer, "are you aware of our problem?" He placed the files inside.

"Your secretary and lawyer have informed me."

"You spoke with Mr. Derring?" Draco asked flabbergasted.

"Earlier this morning."

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Draco asked as a last attempt to have _some_ involvement in the process.

"You can give me carte blanche over the company."

Draco looked at the man whose smile had yet to leave his face, who had spoken so far as if they were discussing a walk around the park and considered kicking him out on his arse immediately, _who did he think he was?_ But seeing as he had nothing to lose he said, "Of course, if anyone gives you any problem just tell them to come see me."

"Thank you," Carwin said grabbing the small box and leaving the office at once.

"Goodbye!" Draco called and slumped against his chair ready to doze off when a small beeping startled him. He looked around and his eyes fell on his Day Planner. He opened it wearily and saw that today was Luke's birthday. Not knowing what ungodly hour he'd had his meeting with Carwin he decided that sending him his present as soon as possible was best. He got the box out of the bottom of his drawer and added a quick postscript before calling Cassandra in to send it for him. He hoped he enjoyed it; it was full of the latest products from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes as Luke was obsessed with their products. He'd sent them inside a new leather briefcase in case Luke's wife, a muggle nurse who hated the store, wondered what Draco had given him.

Draco stood up and walked down to the hallway to Samantha Alden's office. He'd hired her two years ago when the House-Elf rights laws had first come into effect. At the time the House-Elves had been left to their own devices, as long as the work was done and done right nobody spoke to them. Draco had immediately put Wheezy who seemed to be the oldest and someone the others looked up to immediately in charge of them and had hired Ms. Alden to supervise them and ensure that none of their "rights" were being infringed upon.

Draco walked in to find her browsing a magazine, _Spellbound_, which was a worst rag than Witch Weekly. The startled woman put down the magazine quickly and straightened up in her chair.

"Is this what I pay you for?" Draco asked walking in and closing the door behind him making sure that it banged.

"No-no sir," she said quickly, then relaxing she leaned forward revealing the best cleavage he'd ever seen, "I have already completed most of my work, I was just taking a small break."

Draco lowered himself into one of the chairs facing her desk and merely looked at her as she coquettishly twirled her hair around a finger. The woman was beautiful there was no denying it, but it always put him off how forward she seemed, although he'd be lying if he said he hadn't been tempted in the past. "So, what happened during the inspection."

"Inspection, sir?" She asked sitting up again.

"Yes, last Thursday." He said coldly.

"I wasn't aware of an inspection," she said meekly.

"Of course, that is why they are called _surprise_ inspections," he stood up and lowered his voice significantly, "I would like you to look into it, and when Carwin comes around cooperate with him, _if_ you want to keep your job."

He walked out of the office his robes billowing behind him as he stormed down the corridor. He noticed that John Darwin slipped back into the copy room quickly when he saw him nearing. When he walked into the elevator he smiled, he _loved_ terrorizing his employees.

He got off on the 4th floor and walked quickly towards the lab. He thought back on how it'd happened he'd hired these two, it was actually one of the first things he'd done when he'd first re-entered the wizarding world.

_Draco stood outside of the large manor and stared at the door. He had no idea how long he'd been standing out there. He was scared he was about to see his girlfriend for the first time in two years and he wasn't quite sure what to expect. He finally worked up enough courage to lift the knocker once and let it fall almost inaudibly, not that it mattered, it was charmed and the door opened immediately._

_Draco stepped in hesitantly and was met by the Parkinson's ancient butler who didn't seem the least bit surprised to see Draco. "Mr. Malfoy," he said nodding, he turned around robotically and led Draco into the reception room. He bowed and left the room. Draco perched himself on an uncomfortable old chair and waited._

"_Draco! You're alive!" He heard Pansy exclaim he stood and almost fell back when she launched herself at him. He felt something push against his stomach and he set Pansy down and noticed that she was much bigger._

"_You're pregnant! It's not mine?" He asked fearfully._

"_Of course not, we haven't seen each other in over two years!" She laughed and grabbed his hand, "come over to the family parlour, Theus is here! He'll be so glad to see you!"_

_Draco doubted it as last time they'd seen each other he had been threatening Draco, something about hurting him if he hurt Pansy and here he was after being missing for two years and now she was pregnant he was so dead!_

"_Draco!" Theus yelled and he pulled Draco into a hug, "Where've you been?"_

"_America," Draco said smiling, "how've you been?"_

"_You know same old, same old." Theus said quietly and stepped back allowing Draco to see Dan, Theus' best friend._

"_America, huh?" Dan asked giving him a quick hug, "where exactly?"_

"_New Jersey," Draco said knowing what was coming._

"_Yuck!" Dan said, "I'll forgive you 'cause you're a Brit and don't know better, but for the future, it's New York," she said enunciating and gave a small giggle, things had really changed, he'd never known Dan to giggle._

_Draco laughed and began to relax it was almost as if he'd never left and as they all took seats he looked at Pansy, really looked at her. She looked happy, there was a sort of glow about her, she'd cut her hair in a bob, for once was wearing very little makeup which made her look beautiful, and she was pregnant._

_Pansy smiled, "I'm sorry I didn't wait for you, but I sort of fell in love."_

_Draco looked up from where he'd been staring at her stomach and met her eyes, "that's okay, I proposed to someone."_

"_Oh," she said unsure of what to say as he hadn't said he was engaged._

"_It was a big mistake; she was smart enough to set me straight." Dan giggled from the sofa, he glared at her. "So who's the lucky man?"_

"_Terry Boot, from school, he was a Ravenclaw, do you remember him?" She asked fearfully._

"_He wasn't the skinny kid that was obsessed with Quidditch?" Draco asked disgusted._

"_Yeah," she said sheepishly._

"_So where is he now?" Draco asked._

"_At a Quidditch game." At this point Dan was laughing so hard that Theus was holding her up and trying to calm her down._

"_Sorry, she's been like this all day, the littlest things set her off."_

"_I- I- did a laughing charm!" She laughed then started laughing harder._

"_Finite Incantatem," Pansy said waving her wand at Dan whose laughter began dying down._

"_Why did you cast a laughing charm on yourself?" Draco asked incredulously._

"_I wasn't in a very good mood, so I thought that would make me feel better," she explained calmly leaning back against Theus._

"_Did it work?" Draco asked._

"_Yes," she said and smiled widely._

"_So, how is everything going?" Theus asked._

"_Not much to tell except that Jasper Rowley is a fucking bastard." Draco sighed, "Things are so different, and I can't even watch the Real World anymore."_

_Pansy cleared her throat and said slowly, "Draco, love, this is the real world."_

_He looked up and chuckled, "it's a muggle T.V. show."_

"_I vaguely remember talk of it before I left the U. S." Dan said._

"_Yes, well, it doesn't matter, I can't use any muggle products in the manor," Draco said sulkily._

"_Actually, Dan and I were just discussing this the other day," Theus said, "she thinks it's the magical energy messing with the electricity, since not even battery operated products will work."_

"_Theus, you know about muggle products?" Draco asked startled, he'd always thought the Parkinsons were as pureblood obsessed as most of the other old families._

"_That's why I moved out of here."_

"_I thought you told Dad that it was time to claim your manhood." Pansy said softly._

"_Yes, well, Dad always believed anything I told him."_

"_Believed?" Draco asked noticing how quickly the room's energy had shifted._

"_He passed away Draco, in the last battle." Pansy said quietly._

"_I didn't know he was a death eater."_

"_He wasn't, he was one of the bystanders that got killed in the confusion, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, attacked Diagon Alley in the middle of the day. It was about a week after graduation everyone was caught off guard…"_

"_I'm so sorry," Draco said quietly._

"_It's alright, it's been a while." Pansy said._

_After a few more minutes of uncomfortable silence Draco stood, "I have to be going; I promised Mother I'd be home for dinner."_

"_Of course," Pansy said standing ready to lead him from the room they were at the door when Draco turned._

"_Dan, this electric-magic problem do you think it's fixable?"_

"_All problems have solutions," Dan said._

"_Do you guys want the job?"_

"_What job?" Theus asked loudly._

"_Do you want to work for my company and develop a way to use electrically operated devices within magically infused areas?" Draco said slowly as he searched for the right words._

_Theus and Dan shared a look and Dan shrugged and Theus said, "It has been rather stifling at the Ministry since those muggleborns lawyers showed up and started shoving their noses in everything."_

"_Great! Stop by at Hogsmeade on Monday morning; I changed the name to Malfoy Enterprises." He said and walked out of the room._

It was probably the smartest thing he'd ever done. He knocked once and walked in on time to see a wrench fly past and hit the wall not a foot away from Theus. He backed towards the door and turned to see Dan her face flushed with anger holding a radio. "Have I come at a bad time?"

"No!" Theus yelled from where he hid behind a chair.

"Yes!" Dan said as she set down the radio, a loud crack echoing though the room.

"Maybe I should leave," Draco said turning around and moving his hand toward the doorknob.

"No!" Theus yelled again this time launching himself at Draco, "please."

"What happened?" Draco asked cautiously, he knew that Dan and Theus usually argued but it was mostly about work, it was why they were such a good team they had such different ways of looking at things that when they worked together it was hard to get anything past them. He'd never known either of them to be violent especially not Dan who was usually a very quiet woman, Theus tended to be the more passionate of the two.

"That bastard said that he'd leave me if I got pregnant, doesn't want an emotional tent hanging around!" Dan yelled pulling her long hair up into a messy bun. Draco personally thought it was a little late for the emotional part.

"I was joking!" Theus said, "You're too tiny to ever look like a tent!"

"Yeah, but you meant the pregnant part!" She said tucking her white dress shirt inside her trousers haphazardly.

"It doesn't matter, you're not pregnant!"

Dan stopped all movement and said, "That's not the point!"

"It never is!" Theus said walking slowly backwards, "I never seem to have the point!"

"Humph!" Dan huffed and walked quickly towards the door; Draco jumped aside and almost fell over a chair as she left the room slamming the door.

"Shouldn't you go after her?" Draco asked when he saw Theus lounge on the chair he'd previously been hiding behind.

"Right, and have her hex my bits off?" Theus laughed.

"That's not possible," Draco laughed nervously.

"It is, I heard of an Auror it happened to a couple of months ago, he was at St. Mungo's, in the psychological analysis ward for more than a week!"

Draco pulled his hand away from his crotch although he couldn't remember placing it there, "sorry mate, but this is a business visit I was wondering how things were coming along."

"Oh! It's great! We've finally figured it out! What do you know of muggle physics?"

"Very little," Draco said, "nothing actually."

"Good, 'cause neither do I, this is all Dan, but since she's not here, I'll do my best. Light, sound and apparently magic are types of energy and they all emit different frequencies, I think she called them, magic's frequency is a lot smaller than sound or light. Normally all these different wavelengths happen simultaneously and they don't interfere with each other. However for whatever reason, Dan can tell you, the frequencies emitted by magic disrupt most of the frequencies on the higher end of the scale which are mostly radio waves which are the ones used by the well, radios."

"Great!" Draco exclaimed who hadn't grasped much of what had been said, "When will you be done?"

"That's a bit harder, although we're close," He rushed when he saw Draco narrow his eyes, "I'm working on the Arithmancy equation that will help us develop a spell that will allow antennas to ignore the lower frequencies emitted by magic. However, it's working out to be a bit harder, although I did develop a spell that will stop magic from being performed for about five hours within a given area."

Draco sighed in disappointment, "alright, well, pass that spell and its notes along to the toy department maybe they can make a crib or something that will prevent children from doing accidental magic." He stood up and walked towards the door.

"How's Ginny?" Theus asked.

"She's okay, busy with this play she's working on. I'm going to see her tomorrow, I'll tell her you asked after her."

"Of course, tell her she ought to stop by for tea sometime, Dan really took to her."

"All right," Draco said and walked out of the room in time to see Dan coming out of the bathroom, her clothing as straight and neat as ever her hair in a ponytail. "Dan, I'll need you to stop by my office sometime and explain this whole radio waves thing to me, I think Theus just bollixed it up." He said smiling, "and go easy on him, alright, we need his Arithmancy skills."

"Of course Draco," she said smiling; she gave him a quick hug before ducking into the office.

Draco walked to the elevator and took it down to the first sub level. He stepped out and was confronted with a very typical hallway except for the fact that it was full of doors that were only three feet tall. As he walked down the hallway he remembered how this floor had appeared the first time he'd seen it. It had been one large room, it was dark and hundreds of small beds lay scattered around the room. The place was clean for the most part although it had a feeling of neglect and poverty. He was sure he'd been the first human to come down to that level in five centuries and truthfully if it hadn't been for the fact that the House-Elf laws had just come into effect he'd never have even thought that the House-Elves _must_ live somewhere, much less entertain the idea of visiting the area.

He came back to the present looking around at the bright hallway and walked down unbelieving that this was the same place. The large area had been turned into several small apartments that included a living room with a small kitchenette, bathroom and three bedrooms, these of course were only for the families. On the lower levels were several large dormitories for the many single Elves. Draco walked until the end of the hallway and turned he opened the only full sized door and walked into a small room. He opened the ice box on his right and pulled out a Butterbeer. He closed the ice box and the door, the room was plunged into darkness, he walked forward two steps and sunk down on the bed. He drank the Butterbeer as he kicked of his shoes and with a sigh he set down the bottle and laid back, glad he'd worn robes today, they were much more comfortable than muggle clothes.

A/N: Tuesday, May 4, 2004.


	12. News spreads quickly!

Chapter 12: News spreads quickly

Sally walked into the office concerned for Luke. He looked stressed and it was unimaginable why a man who'd handled one of the biggest murder cases since the war without so much as a headache would look so stressed on his birthday.

"Luke, what's wrong? Not enjoying forty?" She asked bouncing in.

"If only that were the least of my problems!" He said looking up. "What's that?" He said looking at the small box in her hands.

"This is for you," she said handing over the box. He opened it and saw a small cupcake inside.

"Thanks!" he said smiling at the four that was crookedly drawn on the cupcake in a bright blue.

"Did you draw this with magic?" He asked.

"Yeah! Molly was showing me how to use my wand to decorate cakes, hers looked like small masterpieces. _That_ was my best." She said laughing, "I just can't get comfortable with that…stick."

"I know what you mean, I feel like a bad magician at a kid's birthday party."

"If it isn't your birthday what's wrong?" Sally asked seriously.

"It's just this case I have with Mr. Malfoy it's impossible." He said.

"Draco Malfoy?" Sally remembered being told a few stories about him from Harry.

"Yes, the Ministry is investigating him for mistreatment of House-Elves."

"What's so impossible about that?"

"Well, the House-Elves say they've been paid, he says he's paid them but the records cannot be found! You know they never believe it when House-Elves defend their employers and the Ministry wants to fine him an extravagant amount!" He said ending quite loudly. "These laws have no loopholes! I think I've got it memorized, I've referenced, cross-referenced and there just doesn't seem a way out of it!"

"Could he be lying?" She asked.

"No. I don't think so, he's a good chap." He said. "It's just his word against the ministry and you know that Weasley woman cares more about those beasts than people."

"Well, Hermione cares about anything that can't defend itself and I've met a few House-Elves and they're people… of a sort."

* * *

Ginny let herself into the house and walked around looking for Hermione after failing to find her in any of the front rooms she walked into the library only to find Ron at his desk reading and eating a pumpkin pastie nearby she saw a half empty plate and walked over and grabbed one. Next to the plate was the Cannons cup Hermione had thrown a fit over three weeks ago.

"What are you doing?" He asked annoyed.

"Just helping myself," she said, "where's your annoying wife?"

"Upstairs in the baby's room," he said and returned to his book.

"What is that?" She said moving behind him. "Is that a muggle book?"

"Yeah, it's a muggle book and bloody difficult too!"

"What's leukaemia?" She asked taking a bite of her pastie.

"Blood cancer," he said distractedly returning to his book.

"Don't we have spells for that?" She asked.

"Yes, but they didn't work, neither did any of the other treatments." He said angrily. "Unfortunately we don't know _anything_ about the nature of the body, I don't think we've ever really had a need to, but maybe we should start! These muggles really get in there they know _every _little molecule, it's mad really, but hopefully I'll be able to figure something out."

"Good luck," she said softly and made her way across the room, it was strange sometimes seeing how dedicated Ron was to being a Healer. It sort of put a different perspective on his obsessive nature.

Sure enough Hermione was in the nursery sitting in a rocking chair, _knitting_.

"You've finally done it, you've gone entirely barmy!" Ginny says as she walked in.

"Because I'm knitting clothes for my baby?" She asked Ginny.

"The muggle way!" Ginny said, "that'll take forever! Was this the emergency? I had to snap you out of this spell Ron's obviously put you under so you'd leave him be?"

"No! And lower your voice he's working, you'll disturb him." She said putting down the needles and standing up. She walked across the room to the chest near which Ginny noticed a blanket was knitting itself and she rolled her eyes. "I called you over to read something." She said picking up a pile of parchments from the top and handed them over to Ginny who'd walked up to her.

Ginny browsed through them and was astounded by what she was reading; _I thought he'd changed_. "I do see an emergency; does Ron know you are sneaking around here working?"

"Ginny! Don't you care that your boyfriend is stealing from House-Elves?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"First of all, he's not my boyfriend, second of all what he does is his own business, his affairs have nothing do with me." She said tersely.

"But, Ginny, haven't you thought this through? If your little plan goes accordingly you'll be the wife of Draco Malfoy, a conniving, lying thief!" Hermione said raising her voice. "Doesn't that matter to you?"

"Like I said, it's none of my business. If that was all, I have a date I need to get ready for." She said and walked angrily out of the room.

A/N: Tuesday, May 4th, 2004/Wednesday, May 5th, 2004


	13. Dating is such a drag

Chapter 13: Dating is such a drag…

Draco had spent some time cooking which meant making sandwiches and picking up a salad and pie from the local market before picking Ginny up. He was taking her on a picnic, he'd wanted to take her out somewhere fancy but he'd already bought tickets for the concert and he didn't have the funds for anything more extravagant. He picked her up and chatted inanely through the walk to the park.

"Are you alright?" He asked her as he lay down the blanket he'd brought.

"Yeah," she said, "Draco where'd you get this blanket, this is silk; you don't bring silk blankets to a picnic." She said sitting down carefully making sure her shoes never touched the blanket.

"Sorry, I didn't know, we only own silk blankets."

"Of course you do," she said distractedly as she looked at a girl on a swing. Draco looked at the girl too noticing how hard she was working on trying to swing as fast as the boy next to her who was going so high Draco thought at any moment he'd go flying through the air.

"Are you sure you're alright? You're usually much more livelier than this."

"Sorry, I was at Hermione's and she was nagging me again, you'd think six years as Ron's wife would mellow her out!"

"What was it she was nagging you about?" Draco asked.

"Uh- nothing," she stammered, "forget I mentioned it." She said nervously and turned around, "Uh!"

Draco turned quickly to where she was staring; a dog was whimpering and trying to move away from a small boy. The boy started to walk angrily towards the dog and suddenly Ginny leapt up and ran towards them, Draco followed quickly.

"Stop!" Ginny yelled at the boy, "what do you think you are doing, hurting a defenceless dog!"

"He won't catch the ball!" The boy said throwing the ball at the dog again and hitting him in the leg.

"You little monster!" Ginny yelled and was about to launch herself at the boy when Draco grabbed her around the waist, "let me go, I'll teach him never to hit that dog again!"

"He's ten!" Draco tried to say but was drowned out by the screaming boy.

"Mummy! This lady's trying to hit me!" The boy yelled.

Out of nowhere a woman appeared, she seemed to be in her mid thirties and was wearing clothing that was a bit inappropriate for someone's mum. Ginny had stopped struggling when the woman started walking near them but Draco kept his arm around her waist mostly to protect himself from the woman who kept giving him strange, lustful looks.

Sometime during the woman's walk the boy had begun to cry and the woman was fussing over the boy who was gasping for air, "mummy's here, don't worry love, that mean ugly witch isn't going to hurt you." She said hugging the boy who stuck his tongue out at Ginny.

Draco was glad he'd kept his arm around Ginny because she suddenly leapt at the mother and son, "you wanna see witch, I'll give you witch I'm going to hex you until-" She pulled her wand out of her pocket and Draco grabbed it trying to wrench it from her grasp, "Draco!"

"Help! Police!" The woman began yelling her son clutched tightly to her, an officer was running towards them and Draco was finally able to put the wand away in his pocket.

"What is happening here?" The tall man asked looking accusingly at Draco, he didn't know why everyone always assumed it was his fault and he scowled at the officer as the woman told him Ginny was trying to hurt her son.

"Miss you're going to have to leave, we cannot have that sort of behaviour here. These parks are for the children, because you haven't actually harmed the child I'm not going to arrest you."

"Me! Arrest him!" Ginny exclaimed pointing at the boy, "that _thing_ was hurting that poor innocent dog!" Ginny waved at the dog which lay whimpering nearby looking extremely confused.

The officer turned to the boy who was now a telltale red apparently afraid that he'd been found out, "no-uh, I was playing catch with my dog and she came over here screaming 'cause…the ball! Hit her! Her basket I mean!"

"That's not true!" Draco yelled speaking for the first time, "you little liar,"

"That's enough!" The officer interrupted, "everyone go back to your areas and if I see you at all near each other I'll throw you all out of the park and you'll never be allowed back again!"

"What about him?" Ginny asked motioning to the dog.

"Take him with you!"

"What! No!" The woman yelled. "That dog cost a lot of money, I bet you started all of this just to get your freckly mitts on him!"

"Ma'am! It has been decided maybe you ought to teach your son some manners, now all of you scat!" The officer commanded and the woman jumped and dragged her son away quickly while the boy yelled and tugged away from her.

Ginny rushed off to the dog and Draco turned to the officer, "thank you very much for diffusing the situation," he said, "it was very much appreciated." The man merely scowled and turned away walking back towards the entrance to the park.

Draco rolled his eyes and walked back to the blanket where Ginny was scratching the dog's belly and saying nonsense words to him.

He plopped onto the blanket, "so what are you going to name him?"

"You should name him, he's your dog," she said in that sugary voice she used right after she's slipped one of her brothers' concoctions into his drink.

"Funny, haha," Draco said and leaned back grabbing an apple from inside the basket.

"I'm serious," Ginny said looking him straight in the eye, "pets aren't allowed in my building."

"You've got that owl, what's her name, Morgan?" He said nervously, "you're a witch, you can charm the apartment so that no one knows."

"Morgan's different, and besides you've got that big mansion all to yourself, you've got the room, and he can keep you company," she said and then turning to the dog she grabbed him behind the ears kissed him right on the lips, Draco couldn't help but be disgusted, _I'm not kissing her today_, "won't you baby?"

"Mother will kill me if she comes home from Paris to find the house destroyed by that mongrel!" Draco exclaimed.

"Oh, Draco, you're a wizard, you can charm the rooms so that he can't enter the really nice ones."

"You've been there, you know, they're all really nice, the hallway's really nice, the _dungeons_ are really nice!" He said desperately.

"Please, there's no other place for him!" She said.

"What about your brothers? You have enough of them, surely one of them can take him!" He said, "and they've probably got tons of places that are appropriate for an animal." Suddenly her face changed and he realized what it must have sounded like, "because they have children! Animals and children go together! Actually I don't think you've ever said anything about whether or not they have children. Do they?"

"That's none of your business!" She said sitting up.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked putting down his uneaten apple, "we're dating, we're supposed to be finding out about each other, you have to talk about your family sometime!"

"Like you've told me _sooo_ much," she said derisively.

"I've told you about everything! Father, Inez, New Jersey! _You_ never say anything about your family!"

"You already know everything about my family! You already hate everything about them!" She said starting to put things away, "all you've done all our lives is talk badly of us and try to hurt us!"

"Oh, please Ginevra, I don't know your family, I never did! I was a stupid, spoiled little boy and you are a gullible, reproachful imbecile for taking anything I said seriously and for holding it against me all these years!"

She didn't say anything just continued her work; he looked at her as she packed up their food, her red hair shimmering in the sunlight. She was so beautiful…

He'd never met a more amazing woman, she was intelligent, funny, and didn't get upset over things that got most women angry in a second. She was perfect he felt his heart thrumming, the snitches returning to his stomach and he knew he didn't want to spend a second without her. He noticed the frown she still wore as she huffily folded the blanket, unfortunately Ginny was hiding something and no matter how amazingly things started with them they always ended poorly…

A/N: Wednesday, May 5th, 2004.


	14. Family is such a drag

Chapter 14: Family is such a drag…

Draco showed his identification to the bored Auror at the desk. The Auror barely looked at it being very familiar with Draco returned it and waved him in. Draco thanked him and walked down the dark stone corridor barely paying attention to where he went, he knew this path very well, as he was preoccupied with thoughts of the company and when he could not stop their intrusion, Ginny.

He finally reached the large door that led to the Death Eater wing on either side of which stood two Aurors. The Auror on the left lifted his wand and waved it at the door. The door slowly swung inward and the Auror stepped into the room Draco following him silently into an open room on the right. He walked in and took a seat at the only table in the room and waited while they brought his father.

Lucius Malfoy walked in his head held high a sneer held firmly on his lips, completely disregarding the fact that he wore the pink robes that were required of the Death Eater prisoners. Although Draco had seen these several times he could barely stop himself from laughing out loud. Lucius sat gracefully down on the chair in front of him and glared at Draco.

"Hello, Father!" Draco said cheerfully.

"Wipe that ridiculous smile of your face! I see no reason why you should be so happy not while your father is forced to wear these ridiculous garments and imprisoned in this ridiculous place and your mother is off gallivanting with who knows how many men where she can't be reached!"

"She's not gallivanting; she's still in France on holiday shopping and having tea _and_ I spoke to her this morning she asked me to tell you that she loves you."

"If your mother loved me she'd come visit, I have not seen the woman in three months!"

"It's not as if you're going anywhere," Draco said unable to stop himself.

"No thanks to you, you blood traitor!" His father began and Draco rolled his eyes and sat back in the chair wondering when exactly Carwin would be done with his investigation. "mudbloods in the company" he heard and nodded _Dan still hasn't stopped by_, "didn't risk everything so my own son would betray me," _next time I should bring a photograph of Salazar sitting on his desk chair that'll get him going_, "my own son, a muggle lover!"

"Dad, you've got to change your tune if you hope they let you out of here sooner. The "mudbloods" helped you out. If it wasn't for the "blood traitor", Potter, and his soft, gooey heart and his "disgusting" muggle ideas you'd have gotten your soul sucked out by a Dementor. So if you want your next parole hearing to go better than your last one," Draco said remembering the Auror's face when his father had spit on it, "you better start embracing it all."

"You're just saying that 'cause you've been brainwashed. That telefusion"

"television"

"was used to damage what little brain you had left and now that your cavorting with that Weasley girl-"

"I almost forgot, I've got to go pick her up, we're going to go _cavorting_ off to Athens," Draco said standing up and practically running out of the room, "see you Dad!"

A/N: Sat, May 7, 2004.


	15. It pays to be rich!

Chapter 15: It pays to be rich!

In the past three weeks Draco had taken her out on some of the best dates of her life. _They aren't always flashy but they're always thoughtful,_ Ginny reflected while carefully applying dark blue eyeliner. She remembered the very romantic picnic that nearly ended in disaster and smiled, _I wonder where he's taking me tonight. _He'd said nothing except, "Dress for a fun, wicked night on the town" and she was doing just that although she wondered why he was picking her up so early as it was barely three in the afternoon. She wore a navy mini skirt, a navy tank top topped by an old Wyrd Sisters t-shirt she'd cut the collar off of so that it was now square and very low. She'd also safety pinned it on the sides so that it now fit pretty tight. She was wearing tights she'd cut holes in and low healed, knee-high black boots because you never quite new with Draco and she didn't want to be caught running from bulls in heels, again.

There was a knock on the door and she ran to it and swung it open. Draco stood there wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. "You ready?"

"Almost, just give me a sec." She said and dashed off down the hall towards her room. She grabbed her wand stuck it in her boots and after applying her lipstick she stuck that in the other boot. She ran back to Draco who was leaning against the now closed door and gave him a quick kiss, "where are we going?"

"You'll see." He said and grabbed her around the waist and next thing she was apparating. When she opened her eyes she was standing in a very small metal room.

"Where are we?" She asked looking around curiously it was a pretty open space and seats had belts.

"My privet jet," Draco said walking towards a curtain on the other side of the room.

"A what?"

"An airplane."

"Oh. Why are we on an airplane?" She asked sinking into the comfortable seats.

"I'll tell you when I get back," and he disappeared behind the curtain.

A few minutes later he walked out and kneeled in front of her. "What are you doing?"

"Fastening your seatbelt." He said and after making sure she was secure he stood up.

"Why?" She asked slowly.

"Because we are about to take off," He said sitting down next to her and buckling his own seatbelt.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"Athens."

"Why?"

"You'll see." He said simply and she heard and felt the motors start up.

"Oh Merlin!" Said underneath her breath as she looked out the window and saw the view beginning to slowly move away. She saw airplanes sitting not far away and wondered what the Muggles would think if she jumped out of this airplane.

"Are you afraid of flying?" Draco asked worriedly turning to face her.

"Of course not! I'm a witch, I play Quidditch!" She said and he looked relieved. "However, I do think I might be afraid of airplanes."

"Ginny, it's perfectly safe, nothing will happen."

"My father used to have a Ford Anglia." She said as she felt herself pushed into her seat, outside the ground was falling away.

"It's a very nice car," Draco said indulgently.

"You don't understand, he'd charmed it to fly."

"I seem to remember that your brother and Potty stole it and flew it to school."

"Yes, well, before that, my brothers used to steal it all the time and well, and one night they invited me." She said, "I was so excited and well, they thought it'd be funny and next thing I know we're falling, for fifty meters, I was so scared, I thought we'd all die." She turned and saw him looking at her with a strangely pleased look and she remembered she was talking to Draco Malfoy and quickly said, "no matter. I can see that this plane isn't going to fall. Why do you own an airplane?"

He looked confused for a moment and she saw him hesitate, he seemed as if he were debating something. "My Muggle friends couldn't keep up on their brooms." He said monotonously.

"Is everything all right Draco?"

Once again she saw him hesitate, "I brought a movie and there's dinner in the kitchen."

"There's a kitchen!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, that couch folds out into a bed, also, but that's for longer flights. We'll only be here for about four hours." He said removing his seat buckle.

"What are you doing?" She asked alarmed.

"It's okay to take off the seat belts once we're in the air. The pilot will tell us if we have to buckle up again."

"Oh." She said her ears getting a little red.

A few minutes later he appeared, his wand holding two trays ahead of him and a remote in the other one.

The next few hours were spent quietly as they watched the movie and ate in silence. When they landed Ginny was grateful, although she thought that maybe filling the silence with alcohol might have been a bad choice as she was having trouble focusing on her footing. "Will you tell me where we're going, now?"

"Sure, we're going to a concert." He said and pulled her close and she threw her arms around him and sniffed. He had a particular cologne that she'd never smelt anywhere else and she had six brothers and twice as many boyfriends. Suddenly she felt the odd apparating sensation and heard screams, tons of them. She pulled back from Draco to see him looking more like his normal self for the first time all evening. She looked around and saw hundreds, no thousands of people sitting about her in what looked like a large outdoor theatre. They were standing at the edge of the orchestra and saw in front of them a drum set and not much else. He guided her unto her seat and sat down beside her. She was looking around in awe at the rocks and up at the velvety night sky. She'd never really gone anywhere and here she was in Athens about to see a band.

"What band are we watching?"

"Dionysius and the Maenads," Draco said blithely.

"What? You're joking!"

"Nope."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" She yelled, threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply. "They're my favourite!"

"I noticed you had all of their music cards."

"Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said kissing him between every one.

The concert was amazing! Ginny had enjoyed every second of it and when they were back on the plane she was still a little high off of the performance and she threw herself at Draco in gratefulness. A few minutes later, Draco pushed her back and unto a seat, "I've got to tell the pilot we're here."

He retuned to find her already strapped in and sat down next to her, buckled up and started kissing her again.

Ginny and Draco had somehow ended up on the couch and Draco was being very attentive to Ginny's breasts. His touch sent shivers through her whole body igniting every nerve in her body making her skin super sensitive and she felt herself warm up. She felt his hands fumble with the zipper of her skirt and she wished he'd hurry up and get it off! It had a weird hook and she knew he'd never get it and she desperately moved her hand to the back of the skirt when she realized that this was it, the moment. For every decision there was a moment when either you stopped or you went the distance and she had to make that choice now.

_You've slept with men on the first date; this is what the tenth, eleventh? Help him!_

_No, you are seducing him, not dating him!_

She removed his hands from her back and pushed him back. He lifted his head from her neck and looked at her confused; she shook her head. His lowered his hands to his lap then slowly shook his head questioningly.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"No, it's fine." He said and sat up.

"We can go back to making out." She said consolingly.

"No, we can't. I- I have to go to the bathroom." He said standing up and pulling on his shirt and Ginny began to put her tank top back on.

Draco saw Ginny sitting on the couch fully dressed, he sighed and sat down next to her, "I've got another movie."

"Nah, that's fine. I wanted to talk." She said.

He put his arm around her, "Really?" and pulled her close, "About what?"

"I don't know," she said, "you never talk about work."

"That's because it's not fun." He said.

"Oh."

"I don't really do anything, except make sure every one else is doing their job. It's stressful is what it is."

"I never heard of Malfoy Enterprises before." She confessed.

"Well, it used to be called Malfoy's Maleficent Merchandise and we haven't had a store for centuries."

"Why?"

"The Ministry made it illegal for any Malfoy to open a store because as you can tell by the name we sold Dark Arts objects, books and other miscellaneous items. Fortunately for us we can still manufacture and sell goods."

"So, you still sell Dark Arts stuff?" She asked trying to sound nonchalant and failing miserably.

"No." He said uncomfortably. "Even back then we made other things. We invented several Dark Detectors and that's pretty much what we sell now. We also have a lot of Divinatory and Astronomy objects."

"You sell crystal balls and Tarot Cards?" She asked teasingly.

"Yes," he rolled his grey eyes.

"Could you see my future?" She asked with a slight bounce.

"I don't need that stuff." He said stoically.

"No?"

"No."

"So?"

He picked up her hand and stroked it with a finger, "a tall blonde god," she snorted, "will kiss you."

She laughed until his lips covered hers, _he really does have _The Gift

A/N: Sat, May 7th, 2004 –Music cards are little metal cards with holes in it that you can slip into your Wireless and it'll play a song. In my head it sort of works like those piano things were the piano plays the song by itself because of where the hole is, except because they are wizards, there's magic involved and well the quality is much better! Unfortunately each card only plays one song, which is okay because wizards don't put out albums like muggles do; they do it one song at a time. They were in the Lykavittos Theater on the Lykavittos Hill, never been there but I've seen pictures, alright, _a_ picture.


	16. Dinner and a Fight!

Chapter 16: Dinner and a Fight!

Ginny was in the middle of adding nutmeg to the mixture in front of her when she heard a knock on the front door. She walked across her apartment to open the door and found Draco standing there with a bottle of wine in one hand. She stepped back to let him in and he kissed her on the cheek as he handed her the bottle.

"Did we make plans?" She asked him as he removed his coat and hung it by the door.

"Nope, just wanted to see my girl," He said walking down the hall and into the living room.

She ignored the thrill that went down her spine and said, "well, you're out of luck because I'm busy slaving in the kitchen."

"What are you making me?" He asked putting his feet on her coffee table and leaning back on the couch.

"Nothing, I'm making a casserole for Sally." She said as she pushed his feet off the table. He leaned forward and pulled her unto his lap.

He put his chin on her shoulder and asked, "what, Potty's girlfriend can't cook?"

"She can cook," Ginny defended, "but she's having a dinner party tonight and she asked me to make my specialty, Cordon Bleu Casserole."

"Oooh, sounds good, when will it be ready?" He asked squeezing her.

"Never if you don't let me up." He removed his hands from around her before she finished and she got up grabbing the bottle of wine from the table. She crossed the living room and walked into the kitchen hearing him following her inside.

"What's left to do?"

"Not much I just have to blend all of this together." She said as she mixed the ingredients. A few minutes later she spread the mixture into two large pans and one small one and moved to the oven. "See that walnut mixture there," she pointed at a blue bowl "can you spread it over them?"

"Of course," he said haughtily and started doing his job as she set the oven and laughed, "what would Potty say if he saw me making his dinner?"

"He'd probably wonder what poison you were slipping in," Ginny said as she leaned against the counter and watched him work.

"I'd rather slip in Veritaserum," he said picking up one of the large pans, "there's much more to be gained from blackmail."

"A true Slytherin to the end, eh Malfoy?" She asked following him with the other pan.

"Always, Weasley." He said positioning the pans inside the oven while she retrieved the smaller one.

A half hour later they were startled from their discussion on whether the colour red or green was better by the timer. Neither of them were in the slightest aware of how they'd happened on the topic but decided a truce was in order. Ginny placed a warming charm on the large pans so that when Sally flooed they'd still be warm while Draco served two plates from the third pan.

After they ate and had some leftover pumpkin pie the two decided that some exercise was necessary and they were getting sweaty when they heard a knock on the door. They shrugged it off but a few minutes later they heard it again and once again they endeavoured to ignore it when suddenly the door opened. Ginny quickly lifted herself off of Draco and leaned over the sofa's arm and looked down the hall to see Harry and Ron walking in.

"Ginny, why didn't you open the door?" Ron asked until he walked into the living room at which time he stopped dead in his tracks. There was his sister topless dangling her breasts, covered in nothing but wisps of blue material, over Draco Malfoy's face.

Ginny quickly got off of Draco and looked anxiously around until Harry handed her the blouse he'd stepped on a few seconds earlier. Covered up she suddenly regained her ability to speak and dove right into a yell, "What the hell are you doing barging into my apartment?"

"Don't turn this around on me!" Ron yelled back. "You are the one fucking Malfoy." He said pointing to Draco as he buttoned up his own shirt who responded, "I wish" which threw Ron off and gave Ginny the chance to regain control of the situation.

"This is my apartment and my life, I can do whatever and whomever I wish in it! Now _what_ are you doing here?"

"Casserole." Harry said suddenly.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"I'm here to get the casserole for-for Sally."

"Right! I forgot! It's in the kitchen. I'll go get it." She said.

"No!" Draco yelled standing up suddenly. "I'll get it!" He said walking quickly towards it, Ron's eyes following him all the way.

"Ginny!" Ron whispered frantically. "What's the plan? You're working some undercover mission for the Ministry right? You're playing him so you can get info into his evil Death Eater plans."

"Yeah…" Ginny said leaning closer to Ron she yelled into his ear, "And tomorrow I'll use my secretary skills to spy on the Minister of Magic himself!"

"Ow!" Ron said from where he cowered.

"Ginny, there's something you need to know." Harry said seriously.

"What Harry?" Ginny asked worried by his tone.

"Malfoy is under investigation by the Ministry, for misappropriation of funds. He's been stealing from the House-Elves."

"What?" Ron asked shocked that Harry hadn't told him sooner.

"I already knew that."

"What!"

"Harry, Hermione told me last week." Ginny said ignoring Ron.

"WHAT! HERMIONE, _my wife_, knew that _you_, my little sister, was dating _Malfoy,_ and didn't tell me?" He asked and before anyone could say anything he apparated out of the apartment.

"Maybe I should have kept that part out." Ginny said guiltily, "She's going to kill me now!"

"So, if you've known what is he still doing here?" Harry asked.

"It's none of my business!" She said.

"Of course it is. When you are with someone who they are and what they do should be your business." Harry said he opened his mouth to speak again but Draco swung the door loudly and walked into the room the two casserole pans floating in ahead of him.

"Thanks," Harry said as he pulled out his wand and once he had the pans levitating he grabbed a bit of floo powder from Ginny's fireplace and disappeared in a flurry of green flames.

"So where were we?" Ginny asked as she undid her buttons again.

"As much as it pains me to say it, Potter was right."

"About what?" She asked nervously.

"It's your business and I know you Ginny. I mean the other day you threw a fit because some kid kicked a dog; I mean you almost got us kicked out of the park! The park, Ginevra! And all of a sudden the fact that I'm stealing from elves is not your business?" He asked.

"So you _are_ stealing the funds?" She asked devastated.

"No! That's not the point! The point is that if it's none of your business you obviously don't care about me at all!"

"That's not true Draco!"

"Then tell me! Why do you keep pushing me away? Why do every time we start getting the least bit intimate- and I'm not talking about the sex-you back off, you get this look and then it's as if you shut down!"

"I- Dra-, no, I-" She started but had no idea what to say, he was right and she had no excuse; _I can't possibly tell him the truth, then he'll hate me for sure, and it all would've been for naught_.

"I've got to go." He said as he put on his shoes.

"No, Draco, don't go. I-" but there was nothing she could say.

He kissed her on the cheek and walked down the hallway tucking in his shirt and after the grabbed his jacket he waved and apparated away leaving her standing in her living room lost and alone.

A/N: Thurs. May 12, 2004


	17. Friends are such a drag

Chapter 17: Friends are such a drag…

Draco apparated into the front hall of Malfoy Manor and almost immediately Salazar came running up to him barking like mad. He reached down and scratched behind the dog's ear picking him up and walking toward his Study. He sat down behind the desk completely lost in thought unable to process what had happened. _Was that what Ginny's been hiding? She's known all along and thought I was guilty!_ Without realizing it he picked up his phone and dialled.

"Hello?" A woman's voice said.

"Inez?" Draco said.

"Titus?" She asked. "What's up? Haven't heard from you in a while been busy?"

"Yeah," He said, "been super busy; attempting to avoid being thrown in Azkaban with my father and dating an old family enemy who wouldn't care if I were thrown in now!"

"Draco, honey what's happened?"

"I'm not sure." Draco said and related the evening's events.

"You should go speak to her maybe she just didn't want to pry, didn't think it was her place"

"That's just it though! She keeps putting up these walls between us. This isn't the first time. She doesn't talk about her family ever, the one time I brought it up she accused me of hating them bring things up that I did a decade ago!"

"Well, you did mention she was you're family's enemy, maybe she thinks you still think that way."

"How could I, I've been nothing if not amazing! I've been trying very hard to be everything that a gentleman should be, I have not once said anything about her family!"

"Maybe you should."

"What?" He asked.

"Your feelings for her family have obviously not changed."

"What do you mean? I'm dating _her_, of course they have!"

"No, your feelings for _her_ have changed, however whenever you speak of them I can't help but hear your disgust."

"No!" Draco insisted, "I'm not like that anymore!"

"Oh, Titus!" She sighed. "What's that barking?"

"That's Salazar, my new dog, Ginny forced him on me, he's kinda cute though."

"You've got a dog! I thought you hated dogs!"

"No, I hate _your_ dog." He said a smile threatening at the corner of his lips, he could _hear_ her rolling her eyes.

"How are Narcissa and your father?"

"She's still in France, _shopping_." He said disdainfully. "Father? He's in prison, how much can there be to tell?"

"It seemed like the polite thing to say." She said affronted.

"Like you care about polite?" she laughed, "So just to be polite, how's Steve?"

"He's good. As much of an asshole as ever but you know… He's been really excited about the baby, painted the baby room and everything."

"You're pregnant!"

"Yes, found out last week!"

"And he's already painted the room?"

"I know, the next day he went at it, keeps bugging me about baby names." She paused he heard her yell at someone. "Sorry, I got to go; the dog's just peed in the kitchen."

"Sure, good luck with Steve!"

"I'll need it! Talk to her, if you really care about her! Bye!" She said and the line died.

He stared at the phone before he hung it up slowly. He looked down at Salazar who sat in his tiny leather chair chewing his toy cat. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. _I_ didn't do anything wrong, so I'll not be the one go back there with my tail between my legs." He said and felt a heavy weight settle upon his heart.

A/N: Thursday, May 12, 2004


	18. Dinner at the Burrow

Chapter 18: Dinner at the Burrow

Ginny stood by her fireplace clutching Floo powder in her hands. She did not want to go. Once a month the family got together for dinner at the Burrow, normally Ginny welcomed the dinners as a chance to see her family and touch base with the people that mattered most in the world. Some months the dinners were combined with birthday parties like in March for Ron and George's birthday and in April for Fred and Will's birthday. This month however Ginny was positively dreading it, now that the news of her relationship with Draco had come out everyone would be dying to talk her out of it, although at the moment it would be hard as she wasn't sure if she still had a relationship with Draco.

Add to that the fact that on Friday, the 13th ironically, she'd had the most horrible day imaginable at rehearsal. She'd ruined almost every line and David had not stopped yelling at her, which did not help. It in fact made it worse because then she had to keep herself from throwing herself off the stage and strangling him. Saturday did not fare much better because she usually spent it with Draco and he didn't floo her or come over, which made her realize that even though _she_ was the one "seducing" _him_ he was the one putting all the effort into the relationship which made her feel guiltier and stupid. Hermione had dragged Ron to The British Museum, Lenicia was working and Luna was still in Russia. _I haven't heard from her since last month, I wonder if she's okay._ So, she'd been bored out of her skull and had wandered off to Fred's house only to be peed on by one of the twins.

She sighed dramatically and threw the powder into the fire and stepped into the flames saying "The Burrow!"

She stepped out to find the kitchen full of people as usual. Molly, Sally and Penny were cooking. Bill was sitting at the table playing a game of wizard's chess with George and Angelina was feeding a reluctant Arthur.

"Aunt Ginny!" George yelled and attached himself to her leg as usual. Arty soon joined him on the other leg. Ginny picked up the two year old and gave him a kiss on the cheek and patted George's head.

"How are you George?"

"I'm happy! Everyone's here!" George exclaimed. He was such a caring, social child and talkative which always surprised Ginny as his parents were so private that Ginny sometimes wondered if they even spoke to each other. Just as she thought this, Penelope walked up to Ginny and disentangled George from her.

"George, let your aunt be, she just came in, and she wants to say hi to everyone else." George reluctantly let go and Ginny embraced Penny. She hugged Angelina and returned Arthur so that he could finish his meal. While saying hello to Bill she noticed that his game with George involved the barest of rules as George was only having fun watching the pieces destroy each other. The pieces in turn were complaining to Bill and praying for the game to finish.

After walking around the room and hugging everyone, her mother held on a bit tighter than she would've liked and scolded her for not visiting in two weeks, she realized not one person had mentioned Draco. She wandered into the living room to find Percy and Ron involved in a serious game of chess, Percy being the only real challenge that Ron faced as he'd been the one to teach him. She tried to say hello but they shushed her and waved her away. Will did the same as he was intent on watching the game and thought it was icky to kiss girls even if they were your aunt, grandmother or mother, something that upset Fleur greatly as she raved at him in French from her seat beside Hermione.

"I'm sorry Aunt Ginny," Will muttered made his way to Ginny and kissed on her in the cheek with a disgusted look, then kissed Hermione and Fleur and returned to his seat where he cleaned his lips on his sleeve.

Ginny hugged Fleur and Hermione, "Where are Dad, Fred, Harry and Charlie?" She asked as she kissed the twins who were currently playing with balls that no matter how hard they tried wouldn't leave their playpen. Fred had invented the balls, Bounce-Back Balls, after he'd gotten tired of returning toys to the two mischievous boys, it always kept them entertained for hours as they were very determined to make their father once again retrieve their toys for them.

"They're outside, Fred and Dad have got a bet going on whether Charlie or Harry is the best seeker, you know the usual." Hermione said grumpily and Ginny sunk down on the armchair opposite Will and stuck out her tongue at him, he scowled and pointedly ignored her. Every couple of months someone would bring it up and Harry and Charlie would go off to prove who the best was. The rules were best three of four, which Ginny thought ridiculous as they always came out tied. She'd suggested making it three out five or timing it so that whoever did it fastest would win but they said it was more of a challenge this way. Ginny had been asked to participate once but she declined knowing that if she won both Harry and Charlie would be very upset, not that she was comparing herself to two of the best seekers alive but sometimes luck was on your side and it would have been devastating.

"What are you so upset about?" She asked Hermione who was frowning at Fleur who was reading some Witch Weekly, probably disapproving of her choice in reading materials, Ginny couldn't count the number of times she'd been reprimanded for encouraging them to publish such tripe by buying it.

"I'm grounded." Hermione said kicking Ron's chair, he glared at her before quickly returning to the game.

"Aren't you a little old?"

"Ron found out about the owls and he's threatened everyone at the office on pain of death not to send me any more updates until the baby's born." Hermione huffed kicking his chair again.

Ginny laughed as Ron glared at Hermione again. "If I were you I'd enjoy the vacation soon enough you'll have to go back to work _and_ you'll have a baby to take care of."

"That's true, I" Hermione stopped as Ron jumped up from his chair and yelled "Checkmate! In your face!" Then noticing the strange looks he was receiving added sheepishly "sorry been watching the American channels again." Ginny rolled her eyes and turned to Hermione again.

"So, how did he catch you?"

"We were coming home from the museum yesterday and an owl dropped a letter in my hands just as we were about to enter the house, unfortunately I dropped it." She patted her belly affectionately, "It's all the kid's fault. I couldn't bend down so when he went to retrieve it he saw the seal and opened it and there it was. All the reports my employees sent me."

Ginny laughed so hard that Fleur looked up from her magazine and reprimanded her for her unladylike behaviour.

"He was real nice and let me see it though," she said and kicked his chair again.

"If I'm so nice why don't you stop kicking my chair?" Ron grunted looking up from the game he was having with Will.

"I love you," was Hermione's reply.

"If you loved me, you'd respect me as Healer enough to heed my advice." Ron muttered.

"If _you_ loved _me_, you'd understand that I love my job." Hermione responded tersely.

"Uncle Ron, it's your turn," Ginny heard Will say; Ron however was too busy answering Hermione to care.

"-you love your job, however it's a difficult pregnancy and you over do it."

Ginny watched Will sigh and reset the pieces, _even the kids know better that to interrupt._

"I don't over do it, I do what's necessary, I do my job."

Ginny stood up and moved near Will and moved a pawn he smiled and moved his knight.

"Are you implying that I don't care about our child?" Hermione asked angrily.

An hour later Hermione and Ron sat on the couch snuggling while Ginny lost yet another game to Will, the kid was good, at least better than her. She stood up declining another game and walked passed Fleur who was feeding Castor as Angelina fed Pollux, she walked into the kitchen and sighed in contentment as she smelled dinner. "So is it ready?"

"Sometimes I feel like I gave birth to seven boys," Molly said acidly, "it'll be ready in half an hour. In either case you can't eat until our guest arrives."

"What guest?" Ginny asked slipping into a chair next to Sally who was practicing levitating the salt shaker.

"It's a surprise." Molly said and turned back to her stirring.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders and turned to Sally, "how's it coming?"

"How's what coming?" She asked confused looking up from where she was now turning the salt shaker into a pincushion that looked more like a snowball.

"The magic thing," she said waving at her vaguely.

"Since Hermione gave me those books and notes it's been going splendidly, at least in theory, sometimes I just can't get the movements right."

"You'll figure it out," Ginny said encouragingly, "by the way, right now your focusing only on the shaker, but you have to transfigure both the shaker and the salt."

"Thanks," Sally said, "I wish I'd gone to Hogwarts."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Ginny said smoothing George's black hair. He'd fallen asleep at the table and looked adorable; he made the exact same snoring sound as Percy, who was actually napping beside him.

"Yeah well, at least I would've learned how to use this darned stick." He groaned slamming her wand unto the table, "look at Hermione she's a muggle-born, only twenty four _and_ she's already Head of the Department of mystical animals, what's it called again?"

"The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," Ginny recited after subduing her laughter, "you're underestimating yourself. It's Hermione, it's unwise for anyone to compare themselves to her. Take me if you want an example, I was born into a wizarding family, I went to Hogwarts, and I got 8 NEWTs and I'm jobl-is a secretary." As she said this Molly scoffed and threw a spoon viciously into the sink where it promptly began to be attacked by a sponge, Ginny knew that her lack of career was a sore spot for her mother and decided to change the topic, "how's the restaurant business?"

"I think I'm finally wearing him down." Sally said energetically.

"The Potters are calling it quits," Ginny exclaimed between laughs.

"No, I mean Harry, I think I'm getting through to him, he might actually call it off."

"Molly, those men" Penny started then saw Percy sleeping on the table and got a perplexed look on her face, "What is he doing?" Penny asked walking in and up to Percy and George, "why didn't he go upstairs to one of the beds?"

"I asked him the same thing," Sally said, "said he was too tired. I tried to take George upstairs but he insisted on staying by his Daddy."

"Yeah," Penny said kissing them both on the head, "George always takes his nap with his Daddy."

"Always?" Ginny asked curiously, hoping for blackmail material.

"Yeah Percy always takes a nap with George before dinner." Penny said still looking at the two warmly.

"Penny dear," Molly asked walking towards the table, "what did you come to tell" she stopped as a squeal came in through the still opened door. Ginny looked outside to see the boys attacking each other with chairs while the table lay only half prepared. Harry was walking beside Arty who was sitting on Harry's broom.

"Fred! Charlie! Bill! Finish that table. Harry you best let Arty off that broom before he falls!"

"Bill said I could!" Harry yelled pointing at the boy's father who shook his head. He was moving to pick the boy up when Fleur burst into the kitchen and moved outside like a hurricane the minute she exited she yelled, "Bill, Harry you take my baby off that broom!" Harry who'd looked merely amused when Molly had yelled at him pulled Arty off the broom and placed him on the ground as if hoping it would stop Fleur's advance.

Amidst the clamour Ginny hadn't heard anyone knocking at the door and when she felt someone tap her shoulder she turned around disinterestedly until her eyes were met by clear blue ones, "Luna!" Ginny stood up and embraced her tightly. "I've missed you!"

A/N: Sunday, May 15, 2004.


	19. Engagements Galore!

Chapter 19: Engagements Galore!

Dinner was well underway and Luna was passing around pictures of a winged serpent she'd called a lindwurm. Apparently they were related to Dragons and Charlie was completely fascinated, he seemed to be boring a hole through Luna.

"Who's this?" Charlie suddenly asked sounding upset, he lifted the picture towards the rest of the table and there holding the lindwurm was a handsome man with piercing black eyes and a warm smile.

Luna blushed, "that's Mike."

"Mike?" Fleur asked "and who exaclee is Mike?"

"Well his name is actually Mikhail Lomonosov and he's a teacher." Luna said.

Ginny looked dubiously at Luna elbowed her softly, "come on there's more to it that."

"He teaches Potions in Sviatoslav Shkola Volshaybstava, or at least that's what I think it's called, I think it translates to Sviatoslav School of Magic. He's researching the lindwurm because they are usually used in poisons and following some of Professor Snape's papers," everyone at the table fidgeted and became oddly quiet, Luna didn't seem to notice, "on using poisonous ingredients to create potions with the opposite effect and even simple antidotes for the poisons. He's had some success but it is difficult work."

"I've never heard of such a paper," Hermione said receiving a glare from Ron.

"His theories weren't well received in Britain in fact I don't think most of the academics even knew of them. They're terribly popular in Russia however, specially his papers on the long term effects of potions on the human body, specially the Blood Replenishing Potion."

"What?" Ron asked suddenly, "Did you say he wrote a paper on the effect of the Blood Replenishing Potion on the human body?"

"Yes." She said calmly.

"Do you have a copy?" Ron asked sternly.

"Ginny has" stopped after Ginny elbowed her, "a cauldron."

"That's nice, do _you_ have a copy of Snape's _essays_?" Ron repeated slowly.

"Yes." She answered with the same serenity.

"Yes!" Ron yelled, "I love you Luna!" He then proceeded to wolf down half his plate in celebration.

"Back to this Mike," Ginny said, "how well do you know him?"

"Enough to know I'm in love with him," Luna replied as if she were commenting on the weather.

Ginny smothered a laugh as she saw Charlie pass on the picture glumly.

"Why that's wonderful dear!" Molly exclaimed. "We must have him and your father over for dinner soon, it is wonderful to hear that _some_ young women can commit." She said and looked pointedly at Ginny who rolled her eyes.

Harry then cleared his throat and Ginny turned toward him thankfully. "As long as we are talking about relationships I wanted to make an announcement."

Everyone at the table turned towards him and knew exactly what to expect.

"On Thursday I finally got up my courage and asked Sally to marry me and she said yes!"

While everyone congratulated the happy couple Ginny's thoughts drifted off to two other engagements that had been important in her life. The first had been Ron and Hermione's engagement which had become for her a sort of ideal to live up to. It had been during Bill and Fleur's wedding and she had marvelled at how Ron, who never said the right thing, had managed to say _everything_ right when it mattered.

_Ginny walked out of the room with Harry a little confused and uncomfortable, she wasn't entirely sure they'd done the right thing. She couldn't blame Harry as it had been her idea but now that it was done she couldn't help but shake off the questions that plagued her about the future. They were walking hand in hand in the gardens when they saw Charlie, Fred and George walking purposefully towards them. Harry stiffened up and although she wasn't as worried she wondered if they maybe knew and had come to destroy Harry. Nah, Bill, Percy, and Ron would be with them too. Hell, Ron would have been running not walking. As they walked closer she noticed that her brothers looked concerned not angry._

_"Have you guys seen Ron and Hermione?" Charlie asked._

_"No, we've been," Harry began but stopped when Ginny elbowed him. "No."_

_Fred and George looked at them suspiciously but followed Charlie into the twisting hedges and flower bushes that created private "rooms" in the large garden. Harry and Ginny looked at each other before following her brothers and reached them in time to see Ron walk into one of the private areas. The boys rushed forward only to hear Ron say "Hermione, I love you, will you marry me?"_

_Everyone stopped shocked and quietly advanced with bated breath to hear Hermione answer._

"_Oh, I don't know, Ronald, we're so young and times are so dangerous," she said with her typical logic and Ginny heard Fred, George and Charlie sigh with relief._

"_Um," They heard Ron hesitate before he declared "our love is enough!"_

_Fred scoffed softly "that's not going to convince her you prat."_

"_Yes, Ronald, I will marry you." Hermione declared and stunning them all._

"_Well, you've made me the happiest wizard on earth!" Ron squeaked ecstatically and for a long time they heard nothing so they snuck up only to see the two locked in a passionate embrace._

_When the kiss ended Hermione smiled and threw her arms around him. "We're engaged!" Her exclamation somehow made them realize exactly what they'd just heard._

"_We're too late," Fred said dazed._

"_So, do you want to go back inside?" Ron asked. "We could dance. I'm not very good though."_

"_That's all right; you've got plenty of time to learn." Hermione said authoritatively as they exited the small clearing. "Oh, dear."_

"_Congratulations!" Charlie said nervously._

"_I wasn't serious," Fred said and added nervously, "rather dramatic aren't you Ronald?"_

"_Yeah, I'm glad your love is enough!" George added shakily._

"_That wasn't-" Ron started but Hermione elbowed him leaving him breathless._

"_I thought it was very romantic." Ginny said wondering what Ron had been about to say._

"_Yes," Hermione said, "he looked so dashing kneeling on the ground." Ginny looked at him sceptically but turned towards Hermione._

"_He took my hand and held them tight and he looked straight into my eyes and he said 'Hermione, I love you, will you marry me?'" Hermione continued as they walked away from the boys, Ginny tuned her out as now more than ever she realized how wrong she was to think that sleeping with Harry had been the right thing to do. Ron and Hermione were starting a life together in spite of everything that they knew was happening. Ron wasn't forbidding Hermione from going on the search for the Horcruxes and he wasn't breaking up with her to "protect" her, and Hermione hadn't sleep with him in some desperate attempt to keep him._

Of course two years later she'd convinced herself that what she had done was right. The war had been over for a year and she had just graduated from Hogwarts. The world seemed full of options and opportunities and she was on vacation with Harry.

_The waves crashed against the sand loudly and the wind blew recklessly through the palm trees. Ginny pulled her sweater tighter around her and smiled. After a week she still couldn't believe that she was actually in Cancun. The past few days had been amazing; she'd never imagined that life could be this way. After a lifetime of second hand clothing and picking up after herself she found that being waited on hand and foot was liberating. She looked around hoping to see Harry, he'd disappeared earlier in the day without explanation and she was wondering where he was as Hedwig had just delivered a cryptic note from him telling her to meet him on the beach. The sun was getting closer and closer to setting and the darkening sky wouldn't help her find him._

_In the distant she saw a flickering light and having no other idea of where to go she followed it to a table sitting in the middle of the beach beautifully set. Nearby she saw a table with trays that she assumed contained that night's dinner. Suddenly one of the chairs moved back and she moved to sit on it. Harry removed his cloak and bowed to her; she couldn't help but smile._

"_This is amazing! It's so romantic!" She gushed as he served her some champagne._

"_You're worth it," he said simply and suddenly the doubts she'd been having over the past two years melted away. She felt so silly for having imagined the distance between them. Throughout the rest of the meal Ginny felt so grateful that he'd proven her wrong. Starting with her sixth year she'd felt a gulf grow between them as he, Ron, and Hermione left school regularly to go on their searches. She'd excused it as him being preoccupied with much more important things and now she saw that she'd been right. Of course last year he'd been busy with Auror training, how could I have been so self-centred as to think that he should have visited me more often?_

"_Ginny," Harry said nervously standing up._

"_Yeah?" She asked looking up and when he kneeled down in front of her she squeaked "Harry."_

_He pulled out a small box from his pocket and opened it; in front of her was the most beautiful ring she'd ever seen and she couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her._

"_Ginny, two years ago I promised I'd make you happy and tonight I'll try to achieve it, will you marry me?"_

_Yes, she thought and opened her mouth, she looked into his eyes; they were determined but were missing the light that used to fill them when he looked at her. She felt a frown crease her forehead and suddenly remembered Ron and Hermione's engagement, "Hermione, I love you, will you marry me?" Ron had sounded so happy, "You've made me the happiest wizard on earth!"_

"_Do you love me?" She asked suddenly._

_Harry looked confused but answered quickly, "Of course!"_

_He wasn't lying, but she saw the truth, he wasn't in love with her, he was just being noble. She'd lost her virginity to him so he had to marry her it was definitely Harry logic. She found herself shaking her head, "I'm sorry, I can't marry you." All doubt fled her mind when she saw him sigh in relief._

"_Why?" He asked her and she almost smiled at his reluctance to give up even though he didn't want to go through with it._

"_Because, we've fallen out of love," she said suddenly knowing that it was true. She was so willing to see him drifting away from her that she hadn't seen herself growing away from him._

_He lowered his head then smiled apologetically confirming her statement._

"_So what are you still doing down there?" She asked. "Come and help me finish this cake." She said gesturing toward the chocolate cake that sat in the middle of the table._

"_You don't have to tell me twice," he said getting up, "my knee's killing me!" _

Everyone was laughing as she tuned in and she heard Ron say "You think that's bad? You should've seen mine and Hermione's. Yours was positively perfect compared to _that_ disaster."

"What are you talking about? We were there." Ginny said confused. She remembered everything about it.

"For the last bit of it," Ron said.

"Ron, don't." Hermione said across from him.

"Ow, stop bloody kicking me woman," Ron said then laughed, "come on Herms, it's been what seven years?"

"Tell us," Charlie told Ron, "because what I saw was a disgustingly sweet idyllic moment in a _garden_."

"It was romantic!" Ginny protested.

"See," Hermione said, "let's leave it a romantic." Unfortunately for Hermione she was drowned out by everyone's insistence that the true story be told and so Ron began:

_Ron was sitting trying to keep his eyes off of Hermione like he'd been trying to do since the beginning of the Wedding. It wasn't easy; she looked beautiful everyday, but today she looked stunning. She was talking to Gabrielle and some girl from Beuxbastons and he was trying to make up his mind about whether or not he should go and ask her to dance when he heard Fleur yell, "Alls zee zengle woman pleez come up to ze stage."_

_He watched as girls he hadn't even realized where here moved up to the stage where the band had now stopped playing. Hermione was being dragged forward by Gabrielle, but when the crowd moved forward she stayed behind and stood behind some ancient aunt of Ron's. She felt his eyes on her and she turned to give him an embarrassed smile, he grinned back as Fleur announced something else. It could have happened in slow motion because as Hermione turned back to the crowd the bouquet went flying in her direction. She reacted instinctively and raised her arms to stop it from hitting her and the bouquet landed right in her arms._

_Ron knew he'd gone completely red, he could see the moment Hermione realized what had just happened because she too went red. All around the room married couples cheered, the other single women trooped back to their tables glumly and Hermione stood there shocked._

_"So, when do you think you'd prefer to have the wedding?" One of the twins said coming up behind him, Ron turned around and saw Fred walking up to him. He looked around the room and saw that his other brothers were also laughing at him. He looked for Hermione to see that she was leaving the hall. Making up his mind he looked at Fred who was waiting for him to react._

_"Don't know, she really likes winter." He said standing and walked away from a stunned Fred. He walked out and walked around the garden to find Hermione sitting on a bench staring at the flowers, a few tears falling upon them. He walked up to her and sat beside her, "so, do you want to?"_

_"Want to what?" Hermione asked looking at him bemusedly._

_"You know, get married?" He asked._

_"I suppose eventually, I mean every little girl dreams about it."_

_"I meant t-to m-me."_

_"Ron!" She yelled and turned her whole body to face him, "are you proposing?"_

_"I guess," he said feeling a blush spread over his neck and spreading quickly over his face._

_"Are you daft?" She asked incredulously. "You don't have to just because I caught the bouquet and we're only seventeen and we're not even dating!"_

_"What do you mean we're not dating? In the hospital wing…we said…and I thought..."_

_"Ron, you had a girlfriend at the time." She said frustrated with the whole situation._

_"That doesn't ruddy well count and you know it!" He said standing up._

_"Well, then, fine! If you want to count from then, then we've barely been dating five months and we're still only seventeen."_

_"We're both adults legally you know, and we sort of- you know six years is a long time."_

_"You've gone absolutely mad." Hermione declared standing up and walking away._

_"You haven't answered my question." He said standing up and walking towards her._

"_You're serious?" She asked stunned._

"_Well, yeah."_

"_I don't know, I mean I thought, eventually, but we're only seventeen!" She stammered._

"_You've already said that."_

"_We're not dating!" She yelled._

"_We already covered that."_

"_Yes!" She yelled._

"_What?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Yes?"_

"_Yes." She said and sat down quickly on the bench, "now _I've_ gone completely mad."_

"_Wow." Ron said sitting next to her stunned._

"_Yeah, we're engaged."_

"_And Harry thought I'd never have the balls to ask you out, and look we're engaged."_

"_You _didn't_ ask me out." Hermione said picking up the bouquet from where she'd abandoned it earlier._

"_Why were you crying?" He asked suddenly._

"_What?"_

"_When I walked in, you were crying."_

"_Oh, I was just thinking that with the war and everything we might not get to- well, it doesn't matter anymore does it?"_

_He put his arm around her pulling her close to him, "no, it doesn't."_

"_No you don't!" She yelled throwing his arm off of her and getting up, "you've got to do this right. I will not tell people that we got engaged during a row."_

"_All right," he said standing up, thinking her completely barmy, but wasn't she always, "why don't you sit back down and I'll walk back in and we'll pretend that none of this happened." She nodded and sat down. "Wait, I don't have a ring."_

"_It doesn't matter, we'll get one later." She said anxiously. _

"_Right," he said and walked out, a few minutes later he walked in and kneeled in front of Hermione and grabbed her hand, "Hermione, I love you, will you marry me?"_

"_Oh, I don't know, Ronald, we're so young and times are so dangerous," she said breathlessly._

"_What are you doing?" he whispered._

"_Just play along." She whispered back._

"_Um," he said and remembering something he'd heard when his mother had been listening to some show on the wireless said awkwardly, "our love is enough?"_

_She looked at him and rolled her eyes, "yes, Ronald, I will marry you."_

"_Well," he said about to stand up, but she had a strong grip on his hand holding him down shaking her head, "um, you've made me the happiest wizard on earth?" She was still looking at him threateningly, so he decided to hedge his bets and kiss her, that always made her forget he was in trouble._

_When the kiss ended she smiled and threw her arms around him. "We're engaged!" He held back a comment that they'd been so for at least fifteen minutes._

"_So, do you want to go back inside?" He asked. "We could dance. I'm not very good though."_

"_That's all right; you've got plenty of time to learn." She said as they turned the corner and saw four astonished redheads and Harry standing there. "Oh, dear."_

"_Congratulations!" Charlie said nervously._

"_I wasn't serious," Fred said and then as if coming out of a dream said, "rather dramatic aren't you _Ronald_?"_

"_Yeah, I'm glad your love is enough!" George added._

"_That wasn't-" Ron started but Hermione elbowed him leaving him breathless._

"_I thought it was very romantic." Ginny said._

"_Yes," Hermione said, "he looked so dashing kneeling on the ground." Ginny looked at him sceptically but turned towards Hermione who was now recounting it as they walked back to the hall._

_Ron was left with his brothers and Harry who still looked at him with a mixture of pity and confusion._

"_You do realize that now you're stuck with her forever?" Charlie asked him._

"_Yeah," Ron said completely happy for what seemed like the first time in his life and walked back towards the hall. _

This version of the proposal threw Ginny off, everyone there thought that it was much better than the original story but Ginny was suddenly lost. In her mind Ron and Hermione's proposal, marriage and _life_ had been perfect but it wasn't. If her view of their proposal had been so…wrong, what else was she wrong about?

After that it seemed the dinner flew by quickly, suddenly the house was almost empty. Fleur and Bill had left with their boys, Percy and Penny had taken George against his will, he was insisting he be allowed to finish his conversation with his grandfather, about _electricity,_ and Angelina and Fred whisked off the twins hoping they didn't awaken. Molly was currently in the living room listening to her show on the wireless while Harry, Sally and Luna were outside putting away the tables and chairs and Hermione was sitting at the table reading _Alchemist_, a magazine that featured the latest wizard discoveries.

Ron and Ginny were washing the dishes, "Ron, why didn't you tell on me?" Ginny asked, levitating another plate unto the sink.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked sending a pile of forks that had just been washed into their drawer.

"About Draco," she said noticing him wince at the name.

"Hermione fed me this line about it being your life and your choice," he said dismissively, "and I figured that if it mattered you'd tell the family about it. Merlin, knowing you, you'd have brought him over to the house with out warning!" He said laughing.

Ginny was shocked by his assessment and felt her heart ache from its accuracy.

A/N: Sunday, May 15, 2004. _Mikhail_ _Lomonosov_ was an actual historical figure he was a peasant who lived in the north of Russia was so intelligent that he became the greatest scientist in Russia. He worked in physics, chemistry, math, literature and many other areas. The Russian is phonetically correct although that's not how the words are spelled. I do not know Russian in fact that was my first time coming anywhere near the language, thank the gods for the internet.


	20. The Pensieve

Chapter 20: The Pensieve

Ginny realized that Ron had been right and decided to take Hermione's advice, end the charade. She made up her mind to go see Draco and break up with him, _if_ that was still necessary.

So on Monday after her practice let out she went on her way. Deciding that at this time of day he'd be at work she apparated to Hogsmeade and from there walked to Draco's company. The building which lay at the edge of town was a large brick faced building that seemed to have been built in the 1700s. She walked inside and it was like taking a trip back in time, everything was beautiful and she couldn't help but gape as she walked up to the large, mahogany desk in the back.

"Hello, welcome to Malfoy Enterprises, how may I help you?" Asked a pretty woman who appeared to be in her fifties.

"I wanted to speak with Draco Malfoy." Ginny said nervously, she had a sneaking suspicion that the receptionist was going to laugh at her and show her the door.

"What's your name ma'am?"

"Ginny, Ginevra Weasley." The receptionist smiled at her and looked down at a list of-Ginny assumed- people allowed to speak to Draco.

She was just about to turn around to save herself from the embarrassment of being laughed at when the woman spoke up and said, "Ms. Weasley take the lift to the top floor and make a right when you step out. You can't miss it."

Ginny nodded unable to say anything. She walked into the elevator, _I must be better at this seducing thing than I thought_; she ignored the pang of guilt and shame that hit her and stepped out of the lift. When she walked into the door the receptionist had indicated she saw a large waiting room. The room was decorated to look like a lounge and reminded Ginny of one of the rooms in the Manor. On one side of the room sat a large fireplace, near the only other door in the room sat a desk, behind which sat a beautiful blonde typing. At the sight of her Ginny couldn't stop herself from straightening her back and lifting her chin. It was difficult for her to stop herself from seeing images of them _together_ making fun of her family, Harry, _her_. She almost turned around but the secretary smiled at her and said, "Hi Ginevra."

Ginny was thrown by the familiarity that the blonde seemed to have with her and spoke up, "Is Draco here?"

"No, but you can wait in his office he should be along in a few minutes." She said smiling.

Ginny walked into Draco's office and was impressed by its size. The office was decorated in an old style with strong woods and leather, giving it a very masculine and intimidating feel. Ginny walked around looking at his large collection of books on one shelf sat a small television attached to what appeared to be an earlier version of the Electrifier. Ginny tapped it with her wand and turned on the set. No matter which channel she turned to or which way she set the antennae it wouldn't work. The magical interference was too high. She was so glad she lived in a muggle building, _poor Draco_.

She turned it off and stepped towards his desk. She sat on his chair which was so comfortable she believed she could drift off to sleep just sitting there. She looked on the desk and saw a picture of his parent looking as haughty as ever, but if you watched it long enough they smiled and waved. Ginny noticed another frame facing down and picked it up to be faced with herself. She remembered the day at the fair when a strange blonde man who'd seemed to know them had forced them to buys two pictures, Ginny had the one of Draco in her house. Ginny studied the picture and laughed at how picture Ginny tried to stop the wind from blowing her hair in her face. She hadn't ever looked so beautiful in a picture before, that Happy. _What am I doing here?_

She leaned back on the chair and the door suddenly opened, the secretary walking in gracefully. Ginny frowned at the length of the skirt and tried to smile.

"Ginny, would you like something to drink? Draco's running a little late." Ginny shook her head and the secretary walked out again. Ginny looked at the papers stacked neatly on the desk and saw that they were reports she was about to look away when a heading attracted her eyes: Maleficent Merchandise Quarterly Sales. There was a list of all the items sold among them a few Dark Arts books and items and a potion that she knew was banned in ten countries apparently Bulgaria wasn't one of them. _He lied to me_.

There were similar reports from stores in China, Switzerland and India. Ginny felt betrayed somehow but she suppressed the feeling put the papers back and continued her exploration now determined to find something incriminating. A drawer at the bottom of the desk was partially open, a silver glow escaped it and she opened it to see a pensive. She was about to open it when she paused, _you can't just go invading his privacy_.

_It's a little late for that isn't it?  
No, that was different they were sitting there._

_He's already lied about the stores; it's my right to find what other secrets he has._

_It's wrong._

_What if he's sleeping with that blonde bimbo?_

…_Do it!_

Ginny reached out her hand and touched the thick liquid only to be pulled harshly inside. Ginny suddenly found herself standing outside of a large white house. There were several other houses nearby although some of them were much larger and there were trees there wasn't anything else happening that is until a black car turned the corner and drove right through her. Inside the car were a woman in a blue shirt and jeans driving and in the back seat sat a boy, who must have been about sixteen, he had dark brown hair and black eyes and was handsome, but there was something familiar about his face. Next to him sat a woman that looked a lot like the boy, she sat straight and had a slight look of disgust in her features as she looked outside the window, besides this she quite beautiful. The car stopped and they stepped out.

"You've got the wrong house!" The beautiful woman said looking up in disgust.

The driver got out of the car and moved to the trunk. She removed everything and began to carry some of the suitcases inside. The boy followed her in moving uncomfortably in his jeans.

"Don't you ignore me!" The beautiful woman said following her inside.

"I've got the right house!" The woman, an American, yelled halfway up the stairs. The boy was no where to be seen and Ginny looked around the house in awe. She moved into the front room and found him staring at a large television in confusion. She realized he must be Draco under some sort of disguise and asked him, "Wish you'd taken Muggle Studies now don't you?"

He stood up and walked over to a stereo and pushed the red power button, suddenly music blasted out. "Wicked!"

"Stay humble stay low blow like Hootie  
True pimp niggaz spend no dough on the booty  
And then ya yell there go Mase there go your cutie

I don't know what, they want from me  
It's like the more money we come across  
The more problems we see"

"So that's why you like this song!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Turn that thing off!" The woman ran in and to the radio, she pushed the button and turned on Draco, "I'm having enough of a time with your mother I don't need that crap killing my ear drums!"

"You're our servant! How dare you speak that way to me!"

"Yeah well get used to it, I'm only doing this as a favor to Dumbledore," she said.

Draco's former haughty look was gone and replaced with one akin to regret but it quickly changed and he was back, "well, tell me how to work that thing!" He said pointing to the television, "what is it anyway?"

"It's a TV." She said picking up a control from the coffee table, she showed him the large button at the top and pressed it. It turned on to a commercial for _Always_ not a good first impression but the woman quickly changed it to ESPN and handing him the control showing him the buttons for channel and volume. "This is the sports channel." She said and walked out of the room, Ginny heard her muttered, "that ought to keep him out of the way for a bit."

Draco and his intense inspection of the television soon faded away in darkness until Ginny was riding beside Draco in a car. He was listening to the radio and was singing along, badly.

"Every step I take, every move I make  
Every single day, every time I pray  
I'll be missing you  
Thinkin of the day, when you went away  
What a life to take, what a bond to break  
I'll be missing yoooooooooooooooooooooooooou"

Ginny looked out of the car to the trees, she really loved autumn, the trees looked amazing and although it didn't look like it would rain there was the slightest tint of grey to the sky that made it seem very romantic. Suddenly the car jerked and Draco yelled out of the window, "What in blazes are you doing?"

"I'm crossing the street, what the hell do you think _you're_ doing?" A lightly tanned girl yelled standing up straight a book in her hand.

"It's called driving, look it up sometime, you dirty muggle!" Draco yelled impatiently.

"What did you just call me you fucking bastard?" Ginny saw the girl come up to the car window her dark brown hair getting whipped in front of her face.

"Forget it!" Draco suddenly said remembering how he'd slipped.

"Just as I thought!" The girl said, "like all men you've chickened out!"

"What's chickens got to do with anything?" Draco asked bemused.

The girl looked at him and opened her mouth to speak when she seemed to remember something she brought her had to her face and "you've made me miss my bus!"

"I wasn't the one resting in the middle of the street." He said and rolled up his window he was going to start driving again when the passenger door opened. Ginny scrambled to the back of the car and the girl sat inside.

"I dropped my book," she said placing the book on the dashboard, "you're giving me a ride to class."

Draco looked at her bemusedly but upon noticing the time he started to drive again. "I'm not driving you anywhere when I get to my destination you will get out of the car and find your own way wherever it is you're going."

"I'm in your class you dimwit!" She said buckling her seatbelt.

"I've never seen _you_." He said in disbelief.

"Of course you haven't, you're too busy making sure you don't come into contact with anyone to look around a bit," she said, "it isn't hard though to spot a Brit with a stick up his ass."

Ginny saw Draco's knuckles whiten as he held the wheel even harder. "You will refrain from speaking to me while in this car."

"Fine," she said and switched the radio station and started to sing along, all the while either ignoring or not noticing how his grip had tightened even more and how hard his jaw was set.

"And I don't know why you couldn't just stay with me.  
You couldn't stand to be near me,  
When my face don't seem to want to shine,  
'Cause it's a little bit dirty.  
Well, don't just stand there, say nice things to me,  
'Cause I've been cheated, I've been wronged,  
And you, you don't know me,  
Yeah, well, I can't change.  
I won't do anything at all."

The lyrics stayed with her as the memory faded out and a new one began. She saw as Draco, whose name was Titus Bucco, became friends with the girl, whose name turned out to be Inez Rodriguez. She saw as slowly he began to make other friends as he became the Draco she knew and not the one she remembered.

Inez sat there looking at Draco with a look of disbelief on her face. Draco kneeled in front of her holding out a ring looking scared. Ginny quickly caught on to what was happening and couldn't help the wave of jealousy that coursed through her. Then just as Ginny was trying to think of a way to get out of this memory she heard Inez laugh. She turned back to see the young woman hysterical.

Draco looked confused and slowly put down the ring. "What's so funny?"

"You!" She said and then controlling herself began to explain, "Draco honey, I love you, but I'm not _in_ love with you and your not in love with me, we're not even dating!" She said and Ginny remembered that Hermione had had a similar objection. "I will not marry you so that you can go back to your magical world with proof that you've changed."

"That's not it!" He cried indignantly. "I'll admit I'm not in love with you, but you are always saying how there are more important things in a marriage than love, like friendship and communication and loyalty and I know you'd be a good wife."

"That's true," she said smiling although tears were brimming in her eyes, "but I never meant it. I _want_ to be in love. I want _you_ to be in love." She said pulling him forward and hugging him. "Even if I said yes, I wouldn't fit in your world and I'd still be a muggle and as fine as you are with that fact I know that a part of you will always resent that I'm not a witch."

"I don't think that way anymore," he said vehemently.

"No, but your heart does." She said then smiled widely and said, "Now get up before you ruin my appetite." She let go of him and turned to a table full of food. "I knew you were up to something when you replaced our usual burgers with pasta."

Ginny looked around the dark swirl thinking that she was moving into another memory but instead felt herself float up until she was suddenly sitting in Draco's office again and beside her stood Draco. She attempted to smile but he seemed so angry that it died in a grimace.

"So, you're spying on me now?" He asked.

"You wanted me to care," she said turning around her gaze falling on the papers on his desk, "liars don't deserve privacy."

"What exactly did I lie to you about? You yourself just saw every major moment in my life just as I'd told it to you." He said smug in his certainty.

"The store. You still have opened ones and they still sell Dark Arts objects." She said handing him the reports.

"Well, at least you were thorough in your search." He said placing them back down on the desk dismissively. "I meant in Britain; it's illegal in Britain."

"But you didn't say that. You knew I would assume it meant everywhere."

"It's not my fault what you assume Ginny."

"Of course not, because you Slytherins are all about manipulation and half truths."

"There you go again with the damn Slytherin thing!" He leaned over the chair his face close to hers, his grey eyes boring into her own, "We are not in Hogwarts, you are not a goody-two-shoes Gryffindor and I'm not an evil, death eater Slytherin. Grow up Ginevra! Let go of all those silly fears and dreams and grow up!" He straightened and leaned against the desk, rubbing his temple.

Ginny stood his words sinking in, _who does he fucking think he is?_ She moved towards the door.

"Come on Ginny, I'm sorry. Don't leave like this." He pleaded.

"Bye, Draco." She said and walked out of the office letting the door close behind her.

"Ginny!"

A/N: Monday, May 16, 2004. The lyrics are from _Mo Money Mo Problems_ by Notorious B.I.G. I remember that was all you could hear on the radio in 1997, no matter what station you turned to! And I love _I'll be Missing You _(by Puff Daddy)! The last song is from Push by Matchbox Twenty and its one my favourite songs of all time! All the songs were popular in 1997. Bucco was a Roman name it meant fool! Just in case it doesn't show up in the rest of the story, Narcissa's cover name was Lucia Bucco. Also, I don't think I'll get to explain it in the story but Draco is in a county college, working on a associates degree in business (he had forged documents for admissions, transcripts, etc. Everything had been worked out well in advance by Dumbledore who (in my little world) was going to offer him the option of hiding out eventually.)


	21. Laws are such a drag

Chapter 21: Laws are such a drag…

Draco sat in his chair fidgeting hopelessly he was waiting for Carwin to arrive with his report. He glanced at the clock, 11:58 am. He said he'd be here at noon and it seemed as if Time was conspiring against him because he'd sworn the clock had read 11:58 last time he'd looked at it and it had been at least ten minutes. He pulled towards him some reports and tried to concentrate. He'd started to lose his patience when Cassandra announced, "Mr. Carwin's here." Draco set aside the report hastily and stood to greet him.

Carwin entered with a bounce in his step and Draco walked up to him his hand stretched out hoping to make a better impression than the last time they'd met, "Carwin I'm so glad to see you." _Finally_.

"Hello, Mr. Malfoy," he smiled and shook Draco's hand vigorously. "I have some dreadful news to report."

Draco was startled to hear him state this so bluntly and with such glee, "Take uh- take a seat, please" Draco said returning to his own chair after the investigator had sat down.

"I have interviewed everyone and I can tell you that _someone_ is lying. All the House-Elves are telling the same story, how good a master you are and that they were paid, but if the report is true then one of them is lying. As for the humans, I would like to give them Veritaserum imme-"

"Pardon me, you'd like to give them what?"

"Veritaserum" Carwin said dismissively, "I would need to-"

"Isn't that illegal?" Draco asked flabbergasted.

"Only if the Ministry finds out."

"No. I think I'm in enough trouble."

Carwin chuckled and Draco wondered if Blaise hadn't been having him on when he recommended the Investigator.

"You can just go to the Ministry and get a license, if it bothers you. They will even sell you the Veritaserum so you do not have to make it yourself." Carwin smiled, "While you're at the Ministry, I'm going to need the actual report from the inspection."

Draco looked at Carwin. "You're kidding right?"

"No."

"Malfoy is one of the Ministry's least favourite names and you want me to go waltzing in there asking permission to feed Veritaserum to my employees?"

"Yes."

"Wonderful! Anything else you might want to tell me?" He asked quickly losing the battle to make a good impression.

"These are the employees I would like to give the Veritaserum to," he said handing over a sheaf of parchments to Draco.

"Right, well, keep up the good work. I'll contact you as soon as I have those permits." Draco said standing to accompany the man out of the office.

"Goodbye Mr. Malfoy," he said as they shook hands at the door, he bowed to Cassandra and walked to the fireplace.

The minute he had disappeared into the flames he turned to Cassandra, "did he return the employee's files?"

"All but ten, although it seems as if, well, the files were copied." She said timidly.

"Didn't John put the Anti-Duplication Spell on them?" Draco asked annoyed.

"He did, I checked them myself before I placed them on your desk last week, but somehow it seems a Duplication Spell has been cast, although they still bear an Anti-Duplication Spell." She said looking for all the world as if she had been asked to hand feed a dragon.

_Maybe Blaise knew what he was doing after all_, Draco mused startling Cassandra by smiling and walking calmly into his office.

Draco moved walked to his desk and picked up the parchments. On the first page there were ten names listed, as he only about sixty employees not counting the House-Elves it upset him to find so many names on this list. The first, in a blinding shade of red was _Danielle Harris, Research and Development._

Draco laughed out loud; _Of course she's hiding something. She never takes these things seriously. She probably told him she's a Japanese Masseuse._ He looked at the next sheet where a brief report of her investigation could be found. She'd claimed to be a House-Elf descended from the line that had served King Arthur his morning toast. He shook his head and banished the paper to the wastebasket and once again looked at the list:

_John Darwin, Copy boy_

_Michael Norton, Speller _

_Daniel Buckey, Speller_

_James Cunningham, Speller_

_Andrew Groton, Shipping and Receiving_

_Ursula Johnson, Marketing_

_Lewis Mullin, Accounting_

_Samantha Alden, House-Elf Rights Manager_

_Frederic Hill, International Manager, not available for questioning_

He knew that John Darwin wasn't capable of the kind of deviousness necessary for what had happened and knew what the seventeen year old was hiding was probably the fact that he used the company's parchment to draw. He looked at his report and saw that Carwin had noted that although he had been unable to discover anything concrete the boy definitely had the air of someone guilty. Draco also crumpled the parchment up and sent it to keep Dan's company.

The three Spellers soon joined them as Draco knew them very well. Groton, however Draco didn't know very well and Draco had never trusted him, there was something about him that made him uncomfortable and he placed the brief on his desk to examine later. Ursula Johnson he sent to the wastebasket as she was completely anti-social and nervous around everyone who wasn't her kneazle whom she brought to work with her. Being in anyone's presence, even someone as friendly as Carwin made the woman practically hysterical.

The appearance of Lewis Mullin on the list made Draco nervous as he was obviously most closely related to the money and as he had been recently hired Draco didn't know much about him.

Samantha Alden's appearance on the list did not surprise him, _she's probably hiding the fact that she does as little work as possible, as soon as this fiasco's over I'll fire her._

Draco stretched in his chair and looked despairingly at the various reports on his desk. He'd have to read them, _but not today_, he stood up and grabbing the interview briefs and the report he made his way out of the office. He would normally have sent Cassandra to fetch the files he needed but that would mean having to read all the reports on his desk. If this mess was ever sorted out he was going to promote someone to Vice-President, it was too much work for one person, _especially one who doesn't want to do it_.

* * *

He went down to the third floor and walked into the Archives room. He might have been there two seconds when an elderly woman made her way towards him. She had a tiny pointed pinched nose that seemed as if skin was barely covering its bones, the rest of her face was similarly thin skinned and her lips pouted in a shrivelled way. Had her skin been green she would have looked exactly as Muggles imagined witches to look. She was around a hundred and twenty and was wore mustard yellow robes that were about fifty years out of date. 

She smiled her skin stretching in an unpleasant way and Draco stopped himself from flinching. "Hello, Draco, how can I help you?"

"Hello, Mrs. Ollerton," Draco smiled at the witch who had been working at the company for almost a hundred years and Draco supposed knew more about it than anyone.

"How can I help you child?" She asked walking down one of the many isles of file cabinets that filled the room.

"I came to look up the files for a few of my employees." He said following her.

"Why? Cassandra just returned the copies that Johnny made a couple of weeks ago." She said turning into a different isle. "Ten are missing."

"I know, it's a few of those ten that I need." He said hurrying after her as the woman walked surprisingly quickly for someone of her age. She had opened a drawer and pulled it out as far as it would go.

"Who do you need?"

"Groton, Mullin, Alden and Hill" He said quickly glancing at the list.

"Hill?" She asked pulling out the other three.

"Frederic," He said remembering that his wife, Cliodna, worked in Accounting.

"Frederic is a very nice boy," she said pulling out his file and giving him a disapproving glare.

"I also wanted to see the whole House-Elf Rights Code." He said ignoring her. She closed the drawer and walked away. He glanced at the drawer and saw printed neatly on it: Employees, Draco Malfoy. The drawer above read: Employees, Lucius Malfoy and the one about it: Employees, Abraxas Malfoy. He could not read the labels on the drawers above those but he imagined that they probably traced all of his ancestors for the last few hundred years. He turned his attention to the old woman when he noticed she wasn't anywhere to be seen. He ran down the isle and walked quickly down glancing on either side of him for the woman he noticed her three isles over walking slowly. He caught up with her in time to see her open a drawer.

"Here you are," she handed him a very thick roll of parchment.

"How long is this thing?" He asked shocked.

"A little over a hundred feet," she said closing the drawer.

"Thank you Mrs. Ollerton." He said, "I really appreciate your help."

"Just glad to see you taking after your grandfather Draco," she said and walked off towards her office.

"Thank you," he called after her and turned around wondering exactly which way was the door.

He'd finally found his way out of the large room and was waiting as patiently as he could for the lift. When it arrived, a little note stopped in front of him he grabbed it out of the air and read it.

_Mr. Malfoy,_

_Ms. Weasley is awaiting you in your office._

_-Cassandra_

Draco smiled and walked into the lift quickly and was about to state the floor when a little note flew into the lift. He plucked it out of the air and wrenched it open to see a summons for help from the Bulgarian branch. Growling he pulled Cassandra's note out of his pocket and using the self-inking quill he always carried he scribbled a quick message letting her know he'd be there as soon as possible after he dealt with the Bulgarians.

He stepped out of the lift and moved down the corridor to the Floo room. He stepped inside and moved towards the fireplace that had BULGARIA printed above it completely ignoring the hello he received from Gita Merai who'd just stepped out of the fireplace that announced INDIA. He grabbed a pinch of floor powder from the mantel and threw it in. As it was a direct connection he didn't need to say anything and was soon stepping out of the fireplace in the stockroom of the Bulgarian branch of Maleficent Merchandise. He nodded approvingly at the neat organized way all of the merchandise was stored and walked out to the stockroom and into the store. The store was equally neat and clean although much darker, giving it a gloomy feel. He nodded approvingly.

"Hello, Mr. Malfoy," a clerk said rushing at him and bowing reminding Draco of a large House-Elf, "how may I be of service?"

"Where's Atanasov?" He barked.

"In his office, the clerk said leading Draco to a door behind the counter.

Draco walked into the room without knocking to find Atanasov sitting at his desk writing something the man looked up startled and at Draco's appearance stood quickly.

"Mr. Malfoy, I'm so happy that you have come. I'm so sorry to disturb you but without Mr. Hill I had no idea who else to contact."

"What's the problem?" Draco said gruffly.

"The Bulgarian Ministry has banned the sale of The Devil's Will and are demanding its removal in less than twenty four hours. I do not know what to do. We have," he paused and looked down at the sheet in which he'd been writing and said, "37 bottles of it."

"It's a small enough package owl it to Russia, they still let us sell them there!" Draco snapped at the incompetent manager. When Hill got back from vacation he was going to flail him alive for allowing such an idiot run of his store. "I do not know why you couldn't put that in the note!"

"I'm sorry sir, it did not occur to me, Mr. Hill-"

"Just make sure you file all of the appropriate papers," he barked.

"Yes, s-sir."

Draco left the office and stomped off startling a beautiful young woman in the potions section causing her to drop a potion and having it shatter on the floor, however Draco didn't notice this.

He made his way back to Britain and after reaching the lift without further interruption he said, "Fifth Floor." There he turned left and entered the accounting office. He walked past a desk bearing a very startled matron and walked to the back where Cliodna Hill looked up from the papers she had been working on.

"Sir?" She said nervously.

"I want Frederic here tomorrow." He said and turned around without waiting for a response.

He attempted to calm down on his way to his office eager to speak to Ginny. He walked quickly past Cassandra and burst into his office but Ginny wasn't there. He was about to go and ask Cassandra if she'd left when he saw that the area behind his desk was illuminated in silver light. He closed his office door and walked into the room noticing that Ginny was bent over the bottom drawer of his desk and lost the battle to calm down.

He walked to the desk dropping the roll of parchment and files he was still clutching on the desk and went around and pushed her back into the chair, her hand pulling out of the pensive.

He saw the dazed look leave her face and her grimace as she realized where she was.

"So, you're spying on me now?" He asked.

"You wanted me to care," she said turning around avoiding him. "Liars don't deserve privacy." She suddenly said coldly.

"What exactly did I lie to you about? You yourself just saw every major moment in my life just as I'd told it to you." He said smug in his certainty.

"The store. You still have opened ones and they still sell Dark Arts objects." She said handing him the reports that he'd been avoiding.

"Well, at least you were thorough in your search." He said placing them back down on the desk dismissively. "I meant in Britain; it's illegal in Britain."

"But you didn't say that." She said harshly. "You knew I would assume it meant everywhere."

"It's not my fault what you assume Ginny."

"Of course not, because you Slytherins are all about manipulation and half truths." She spit out as if the words were to bitter to contain.

"There you go again with the damn Slytherin thing!" He leaned over the chair his face close to hers, his grey eyes boring into her own, "We are not in Hogwarts, you are not a goody-two-shoes Gryffindor and I'm not an evil, death eater Slytherin. Grow up Ginevra! Let go of all those silly fears and dreams and grow up!" He straightened and leaned against the desk, rubbing his temple, he could not believe the headache this witch always caused him.

He felt a movement and opened his eyes to see her walking towards the door. "Come on Ginny, I'm sorry. Don't leave like this." He pleaded, _why couldn't I control myself, why did I have to speak without thinking_.

"Bye, Draco." She said and walked out of the office letting the door close behind her.

"Ginny!" He ran after her and opened the door in time to see her leaving the waiting room he ran all the way to the lift only to have it close on his face.

This didn't seem like the fight last week, this felt permanent and as he felt his heart break he thought he'd kill Inez for turning down his marriage proposal, if she'd only said yes this all would've been avoided.

* * *

A/N: Monday, May 16, 2004. The Devil's Will is the common name for a potion, Suggerero. It acts like an Imperius curse but it has a weaker effect. It makes the drinker vulnerable to the suggestion (they're easier to convince of things) of the person whose blood is in the potion. It was originally developed in Roman times, it was called Dialectica Vincetis, and was used a way to clear the mind of judges to make them impartial and more logical when they heard the cases. Just as soon as it was common knowledge another politician changed the formula and made Suggerero. 


	22. Earning Veritaserum

Chapter 22: Earning Veritaserum

The next day Draco awoke early and made his way to the Ministry, before the Ministry had even opened its doors, in hopes of finding that the only person there that early, was a lower level employee that was willing to do anything for Draco for fear of getting killed. Of course there was always the bonus of avoiding the stares and whispers that still followed him wherever he went; it had come as no surprise that the news of his problems had become common knowledge.

He walked up to the security guard who yawned at him before placing his wand in the scale to verify his wand and letting him into the building proper. He took the lift to the fifth level, the voice announcing "Level five, Department of International Magical Cooperation, incorporating the International Magical Trading Standards Body, the International Magical Office of Law, and the International Confederation of Wizards, British Seats," before the doors opened and he walked out into the hallway and through doors that read International Magical Office of Law, as he walked down the various hallways he passed Luke's door and decided to visit him before leaving the building. He finally reached a door that read Office of Permits and Licenses and walked inside to an empty waiting room. On the right side was a counter that separated the waiting room from a desk area, a door behind the desk stood open to reveal a room full of cabinets.

Directly across from Draco lay an open door that revealed a small office. He walked forward to see that the room was lit by two charmed windows sitting behind a large desk. In front of the desk were two chairs and the desk was bare except for two pieces of parchment in the exact centre of the desk. There was a door on the right wall that seemed to lead to the same cabinet filled room he'd glimpsed behind the counter. The office was bare of personal touches except for a frame on a small table on the left wall.

Draco stepped into the room and walked to the table. The picture was of a young woman with flowing black hair holding a small boy with equally dark hair, piercing blue eyes and freckles scattered across his face. The boy was speaking a flurry of silent things as the woman, presumably his mother pretended to be captivated, then she'd wink at the camera and return her attention to the boy. Something seemed familiar to him about them but he could not place where he'd seen them. He put down the photograph and considered leaving when he heard a door open, he turned around to see a red headed man step into the waiting room carrying a few pieces of parchment, his nose was buried in a book and the man hadn't noticed him yet and Draco took the opportunity to set down the picture and move away from the table. Draco studied the man and his heart stopped _Please, don't be a Weasley, please_. The man was now at the door and looked up. His posture straightened when he noticed Draco and as he stepped into the office he eyed him suspiciously. Draco's heart sunk. _It _was_ a Weasley, Patrick or Peter, Damm_.

"Mr. Malfoy, how may I help you?" Weasley said professionally setting down his load on the desk.

"I would like a permit to administer Veritaserum to a few of my employees." Draco said as nicely as possible.

"I see," Weasley said gesturing towards the chairs in front of the desk. Draco quickly took the seat and Weasley sat down. "What is the reason?" He asked opening a drawer and pulling put some forms.

"As you may know I am being fined by the House Elf Liaison Office and am currently running an investigation on my employees." Draco paused not knowing what else he could say; his dilemma was put to rest as Weasley spoke up.

"I was not aware." Weasley said confusing Draco. "Although I'm not surprised as they will put you under investigation if you so much as look at a _Creature_ cross-eyed. However, I cannot give you the permit without proper documentation. You must go to the House-Elf Liaison Office first and return with the appropriate forms and this sheet completed." He stood and Draco thanked him and stepped out of the office relieved. That hadn't gone so badly.

When he arrived at the 4th level he walked up to the House-Elf Liaison Office and paused after taking a deep breath he walked into a quiet room a lot like the one he'd just left except most of the chairs were very small. There was a young woman behind the counter; exactly what he'd hoped to find when he'd come into the Ministry a half-hour ago.

The young woman who was around eighteen years old and quite pretty walked up to him with a sway of her hips her robes fluttering around her as if asking him to touch them. "Hi, how can I help you?"

"Hi," He said with his most charming smile. "My company recently had a surprise inspection and I was hoping to see a copy of the report."

"Why, of course can I please have your name?"

Draco cringed involuntarily and trying to hide his discomfort and said, "Draco Malfoy, owner of Malfoy Enterprises." Almost immediately her demeanour changed. It always amazed Draco how much had changed in the past few years. As a child he'd been proud of his name. The Malfoys were close to royalty, today it was trash.

The girl's smile disappeared, her back straightened. Her nose rose a few inches in the air. "Riiight, wait here a second." She walked away quickly her aqua robes barely moving as she strode out of the room.

Although she'd made it clear he was not to move he walked a few feet and sat on one of the few full sized chairs, a very uncomfortable wooden chair.

By the time she arrived he'd managed to arrange himself in a pose that made him appear as if he were lounging with nary a worry on Earth although the corner of the chair back was eating into his back.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said in clipped tones, that could have put McGonagall to shame.

He stood up lazily and smiled, "yes?"

"Here," she said thrusting a large set of papers at him.

He grabbed them, "thank you." He smiled and with a small bow he left the Office.

An hour later Draco left the Ministry with a bottle of Veritaserum in a pocket, a handful of papers and a frown on his face.

* * *

Percy sat in his chair thinking about Draco Malfoy. He'd heard he was different and that he was friends with one of the Muggle-born lawyers but hadn't paid much attention as he didn't approved of the way gossip went around and how inaccurate most of it was. Yet, Malfoy had been polite if a bit tense, although that must be due to the nature of his request.

He heard a knock on the door open and straightened his clothing before calling out, "Come in."

The door opened and Cindy McCloud, one of his most promising employees stood there, "Hell, sir, is there anything I may get for you?"

"No, Cindy, thank you." He said and the woman nodded and left the office.

Percy glanced at the clock And saw that she was half an hour early and pulled out his employee journal from his desk and noted it under her name. He turned back to the papers he had retrieved and began to go through them checking for inconsistencies. At eight he heard the rest of his employees filter into the office and he walked into the other room to address them and give them their assignments for the day.

A few minutes later Malfoy returned smiling hesitantly as he handed the filled form and the House-Elf Liaison Office's report to Percy. Percy checked the top page making sure all of the information on it was accurate. He handed the report back and called Cindy into the office passing her the form and asking her to bring in the license for him to sign.

"Thank you, very much Wea-Mr. Weasley." Malfoy said, "I know you mustn't normally handle these things personally. I really appreciate it."

"Don't worry about it," Percy thought it was a great chance to expand his connections, sure the Malfoy family didn't seem very liked _now_, but in ten or twenty years everyone would have forgotten about their unfortunate _associations_ and their money would once again be welcome, "And call me Percy, _Draco_." He said noticing the surprise in Malfoy's features. "I understand how hard it must be to go through all this. As much as I admire the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures' very honourable attempt to try and defend those who are unable to do so for themselves, I do believe it is appalling how they treat Wizards; as if we were beneath those _Creatures_." Percy thought unhappily of the times he and Hermione had gotten into arguments over this very topic. He had to admit as much as he admired and cared for her he couldn't help but feel bitter that she'd managed to become director of her department so quickly, although he knew she'd gotten lucky that two of her superiors had retired it still grated on his nerves how people were always going on about how she was the youngest director in history.

Malfoy shifted in his seat and said stiffly, "Well, _Percy_, I'm sure that they feel that what goes around comes around."

_A Malfoy trying to be understanding! Maybe those rumours had been true after all. _There was suddenly a knock on the door to his left and Cindy entered with the license and a small bottle of Veritaserum. Percy signed it quickly and passed it to Draco who thanked him as he stood. However at the door he stopped and said "Gin-" then stopped and said, "Thank you, Percy, have a nice day." He left and Percy was confused , he was sure that Draco had been about to say Ginny, but why?

Now that he thought about it his sister had looked unhappy at the last family gathering, quiet and thoughtful, especially after Harry and Sally's announcement. Percy had assumed that regardless of her denials and various boy friends she'd still had feelings for Harry but this presented a very interesting solution, what if Ginny was the unidentified red head Malfoy had been seen with recently?

* * *

A/N: Tues., May 17, 2004. Yes, finally! You must all hate me! Don't blame you. Just know that the next few chapters will be getting updated very soon, I haven't been entirely idle, I've written the chapters it's just a matter of typing them up! 


	23. Ginny Ponders

Chapter 23: Ginny ponders!

It had been two days since her fight with Draco and she still couldn't comprehend everything that had transpired in the past week. Ron's comments, the realization that Draco had indeed been right about her ideas and specially the lyrics to that damn song kept playing themselves over and over in her head.

She looked again at the parchment where she'd scribbled them down so she wouldn't forget and read it.

"And I don't know why you couldn't just stay with me.  
You couldn't stand to be near me,  
When my face don't seem to want to shine,  
'Cause it's a little bit dirty."

That was what she'd done with Draco, had been doing since the beginning she saw his flaws and wouldn't let herself love him. She thought again about Ron and Hermione's engagements and how she'd perceived it and how it really had been. She realized that the true engagement had been more romantic because it was _Ron_ and _Hermione_, Ron being passionate and Hermione being logical, loving each other, rowing. That's who they are and they weren't blind to each other's faults, they were happy to throw them at each other's faces as often as possible but they still loved each other.

Before she'd seen their lives as perfect because she saw their home and the jobs they loved but now it was as if she'd been given new eyes. She remembered when they'd lived at the Burrow cramped up in Ron's room. The fights when Ron resented that Hermione was the one making the money while he was still training to be a Healer. The fights when they'd finally decided to move out into their own tiny apartment. The fights when they'd decided to get their own house. Indeed she'd ignored the arguments as just Ron and Hermione but now she realized they'd worked hard to reach this place in life, that _perfection_ that she'd ignorantly coveted, thinking she would only have to wish it and it would be hers.

Draco had been right, she needed to grow up, she needed to let go of all her old dreams and fears and make a choice. She needed to work for what she wanted, instead of hoping it would fall into her lap. She stood up from the couch where she'd been sitting contemplating how massively she'd ruined her life.

She walked over to the television armoire and opened it she kneeled down and pulled out her wand waving it at a locked drawer. The drawer opened up and she reached inside pulling out a cauldron. She set it on the floor beside her and pulled out a picture which she'd thrown in about a month ago without giving it another glance. She looked at it now to look at Draco as he really was. His eyes were the first to draw her attention, in this picture they were so light that they were almost blue but not quite it actually reminded her of the sky during autumn. His smile was wide, free with a happiness she felt stupid for not having noticed earlier. She looked again at him, at his slightly pointy nose, at his hair which was so light it was almost white and couldn't stop the smile that formed on her face, _I love you, Draco_.

The realization didn't startle her, she'd always known deep down, she was just scared of what it might mean, scared of what might happen if he didn't love her back. She accioed the parchment which she'd left on the coffee table and transfigured it into a frame and she placed Draco's picture in it. For all of her holding on to the past and the house distinctions she hadn't been much of a Gryffindor. She hadn't been very brave, _even back then_, she saw the book that lay inside the cauldron and lifted it out.

She opened the cover and picked up the two parchments. She accioed a quill and inkwell from her bedroom and set about filling out an application she should have finished five years ago.

When she set it aside to dry she saw the other parchment and picked it up, she remembered so clearly the day Professor Slughorn had given it to her.

_Ginny stood nervously in front of the old man she had no idea why he'd summoned her to stay after class. "Ms. Weasley, Professor McGonagall has informed me of your plans to become a Potions Mistress."_

"_Ye-es, sir," she said nervously she was never quite sure whether or not he was this nice, it seemed impossible to her thinking that any Slytherin could be kind specially to a Gryffindor no matter how much he praised her during class._

"_These past three years I've been very much impressed by your ability in potions. It is not something that one can learn; it is a natural aptitude and _love_ for potions." He said, "Professor Snape, may he rest in peace, thought as much and sang your praises when he gave me the evaluation reports of his students."_

_Ginny was stunned she'd always been rather embarrassed by the fact that unlike the other Gryffindors Snape had never reprimanded her, _at least not during Potions_, but she'd never imagined that he'd spoken well of her._

"_That is why I've written this for you," he said picking up a parchment and handing it to her, "it is a recommendation, for the Potions Research Division of the Department of Mysteries."_

"_Th-thank you," Ginny said completely shocked. "Thank you so much sir!"_

"_It's nothing, especially not for an outstanding member of the Slug Club," he said merrily. "I have something else for you," he said and lifted the tome on his desk. "Enjoy it."_

"_Thank you, sir," she said taking the book without glancing at the title._

"_That's all, I'll see you on Sunday for tea?"_

"_Of course, wouldn't miss it for anything." She said smiling and walked out of his office. When she was a little of the way down the hall she stopped to look at the book he'd given her: _Imbibing the Killer: An Analysis of Commonly Used Potions by Severus Snape

She looked at the book, _I have enjoyed it_.

She turned back to the parchment and opened for the first time.

"Dear Arsenius,

I presume that you are already excited by the qualifications of this young witch, Ginevra Weasley so this letter is not to speak of her talents as a Potions maker, which I believe are attested for quite well by her marks and excellent O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S scores. This letter is to tell you of her character. This young woman is a credit to all Witches and Wizards everywhere. She is hardworking, courageous, intelligent, and ambitious, all indications of someone who will change the world."

The letter continued in this vein but she couldn't read anymore as she was sure that if she felt any guiltier and any more like a failure she would be unable to drag herself out of bed for a week. She folded up both parchments and sealed them then called Morgan, her owl from where she was perched on top of the armoire and gave her the letter to deliver to the Ministry.

She sat on the coffee table clutching Draco's picture as Morgan flew out the window and hoped she'd done the right thing. She was not allowed the privilege of worrying as she suddenly heard a knocking at the door. She ran down the hall and opened the door to see Luna standing there.

"Hi," she said weakly.

Luna breezed in, "I'm here to take your copy of Imbibing the Killer. Ron won't let up and if I don't give it to him soon I think he's going to hex me."

"Sure, it's by the telly." Ginny said following her in.

Luna walked in and picked up the book from the floor. She then turned around to look at Ginny for the first time since arriving, "Is that a picture of Draco Malfoy in your hand?"

"Yeah," Ginny said sadly gazing at it, "He's my boyfriend, I think."

"I always thought he was rather handsome when he didn't speak."

"Yeah," Ginny said laughing, _you can always count on Luna to lighten the mood_.

"I heard that in my absence his company came out with something called an Electrifier."

"Yes, it's amazing, it allows Witches and Wizards to use muggle technology, Dad has one."

"That's what he was talking about!" Luna exclaimed.

Luna then told her some stories from her adventures in Russia while Ginny prepared them lunch.

After they ate they sat around playing cards and listening to the wireless when Ginny's fire flared. She looked at the clock over the mantelpiece, it was a little after two. _Who could it be?_

Penny stepped out of the fire, William and George each holding unto one of her hands.

"Aunt Ginny! Aunt Luna!" George exclaimed hugging each one in turn. Will sulked into the room and sat on one edge of the sofa. Penny dropped the bag she was holding and bent down. She pulled out a magazine and without another word shoved it at Ginny.

"Ginevra, what is the meaning of this?"

"Oh! I'd forgotten!" Ginny said. "Yeah, I've got one of the female leads." She said unnecessarily as it was her picture that sat front and centre.

"When did you have time to be in a play?" Penny asked crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"_Lovers' Vows_ is one of my favourite plays!" Luna exclaimed.

Ginny looked at the cover of the magazine which Luna was now perusing, "isn't that Fleur's magazine?"

"Yeah, she lent it to me." Penny said.

"Why didn't she say anything on Sunday?" Ginny said. "It might have reminded me, I meant to tell everyone then."

"She probably didn't see it." Penny said dismissively, "don't change the subject. I happen to know that David Fay makes his cast practice almost everyday. Isn't that the time you're usually at work?" She turned her glare at George and Will who were flipping through the TV. "Boys, can't you hear the Wireless is on? Turn that thing off!"

The boys turned it off and slumped down on the floor and gathered up the cards Luna and Ginny had discarded with their arrival.

"Penny, I appreciate your concern, but I'm a grown woman and I don't need you to tell me what to do." Ginny said standing so she was level with Penelope. "Besides, I quit my job months ago and as you can see the world hasn't imploded."

Penny narrowed her eyes and Ginny could see the moment she gave up. "Well, when can you get us all tickets?"

* * *

A/N: Wed, May 18, 2004, Ginny doesn't work on Wednesday. Penelope opened a primary school for wizard children and is its Headmistress. School's ended for the day and she has Will with her because she drops him off at Bill and Fleur's everyday after school. I thought I'd slip those facts in during the chapter but I didn't, so there you are so you're not confused. As you can tell, this is one of the chapters that I had put up before that needed to be moved when I decided to go for my less confusing ordering of the chapters! 


	24. Hate is a strong word

Chapter 24: Hate is a strong word.

Ginny was determined to be an adult and although common sense dictated that she go and speak to Draco and clear everything up she didn't think she was ready for that just yet. So on Thursday after practice instead of going home she apparated outside of the Burrow intent on ending all of the lies.

Ginny had always been close to her mother when she had been growing up, they'd had to be as they were the only women in a house full of men, but when Ginny had gone off to Hogwarts things had begun to change. It hadn't helped that she had run off right after her graduation with Harry against her mother's wishes. What was worse was that they'd returned broken up, effectively ruining all chances of making Harry an official part of the family. Of course it didn't help that she'd then turned down the Ministry position her father had found her and gone off to work with Fred.

Ginny took a deep breath as she opened the kitchen door and walked in not surprised to see her mother sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and listening to a soap on the Wireless. Her mother looked up and set down the cup.

"Is everything all right, Ginny?" She asked standing up and running to Ginny.

"Mum, I'm fine." Ginny reassured her as she was pushed into a chair.

"Then why are you here?" Her mother asked as she poured a cup of tea for her. Ginny was hurt that things had gotten so bad that her mother only expected her when things went wrong. "Are you having problems with Brian?"

"Mum, Brian and I broke up more than two months ago. I thought you knew." Ginny said shocked and vaguely remembered shrugging off a question about him on Sunday.

"Oh," her mother said, hurt flashing across her face briefly.

"I have been dating someone else for the last two months," Ginny said slowly.

"Oh?"

Ginny was really starting to get annoyed by her mother's monosyllabic answers no wonder they'd drifted apart, "Yes, I've been seeing Draco Malfoy."

"What?" Her mother stood her face red, Ginny smiled happy to have finally gotten a reaction out of her. "Why would you do that to us! After what that family has done to us what that man has done to your father, to you!"

"What man? Because if you're referring to Lucius Malfoy, Draco is not him! HE has done nothing wrong!"

"He poisoned Ron!"

"Not on purpose!"

"Of course not, because he was trying to kill _Albus Dumbledore_!"

"But he didn't! Harry himself told us how the minute Dumbledore told him there was a way of saving his family he lowered his wand. He did what he had to do to protect his family, the same as any of us would do!"

"We would never murder anyone!"

Ginny ignored that comment and continued, "Besides Lucius didn't know that Tom Riddle would try to kill me."

"I suppose your dear Draco told you this?"

"Yes, and I believe him." Ginny said confidently although inside she felt terribly guilty because the truth was she hadn't believed him but was now determined to put aside all doubts and trust him as he'd been able to trust her, until she'd snooped through his things and personal thoughts that is.

"Get out," her mother said quietly.

"What! You can't kick me out!"

"Why not?" Her mother asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm your daughter!" Ginny exclaimed upset, she'd never kick any of the boys out of the house, even the twins.

"Are you now? You haven't acted like my daughter for the past twelve years, ever since that diary. It changed you and now you are dating a Death Eater"

"Draco's not a Death Eater and this has nothing to do with the diary and it didn't _change_ me, not the way you mean, it just opened my eyes to the reality of the world, that no one, no matter how good is safe from evil people."

"I thought you didn't blame Lucius Malfoy for that?" Her mother said coldly.

"I was speaking of Tom Riddle." Ginny said and stood up, "I think I _will_ go now, I see that I made a mistake by coming here." She said and walked out of the kitchen she stood outside for a few minutes completely at a loss as to what she should do now that things hadn't gone how she'd expected. She heard her mother crying inside and fought down the guilt that began to gnaw her stomach and she apparated away.

* * *

Ginny sat on the lawn chair and wondered whether she ought to go inside or not, _I really should just go home_.

"How long have you been out there?" Ron asked her walking outside.

"I don't know, a few minutes?" She answered.

"Why?" He leaned against the chair across from hers.

"I was wondering whether or not I should talk to Hermione," she said, "is she home?"

"Where else would she be?" Ron asked leading her into the house. "She's upstairs in the baby's room, pretending to be organizing." He grabbed a plate with a sandwich and a cup. "Do you want anything?"

"Nah, what do you mean pretending?" Ginny asked following him upstairs.

"She's working, besides I don't know what else she's going to organize. That room's been ready for weeks, hell, she's probably told the kid the exact time it's supposed to show up." Ron waved his cup down the hall towards the baby room but Ginny continued to follow him into the T.V. room and threw herself on top of the old sofa.

Ron laughed at the T.V. and Ginny looked up to see a commercial for a cleaning liquid to be used in dishwashers, "what are you watching anyway?"

"Commercials, the things these Muggles come up with is hilarious," Ron changed the channel as the programme began; the same commercial began to play, "they always show the same ones, when are they going to make new ones?" He changed the channel a few times until he found one he liked.

"I've been meaning to ask you, what ever made you look at Muggle medical books the other day?"

"Jane, I was telling her about my patient, the Auror, and she said it sounded very much like a Muggle disease so I took her advice and looked it up in a few books and it was the same. Although it didn't help me find a cure, I was able to come up with a temporary solution. What really helped were Snape's papers much as I hate to admit it. So now the whole thing is up to the Potions Department since you know I'm rubbish at potions."

"What Auror?" Ginny asked annoyed at Ron's attitudes about Snape, it had always bothered her how everyone in her family still seemed to hate him even though if it weren't for him they'd never have won the war.

"Ginny, you really have been busy with your _boyfriend_ haven't you?"

"I don't want to talk about him," she said seriously, her temper flaring.

"What, did the git finally show his true colors?" He said with obvious glee.

"No, I did." She said quietly.

"What happened?" He asked putting his plate down on the small table next to sofa and leaning towards her.

"I've ruined everything, this whole time he's been wonderful and I've been holding him at arm's length and I looked in his pensieve and I made Mum cry today." She wailed throwing herself into his arms.

"Ron! Will you lower that- Ginny! What's wrong?" Hermione said shuffling into the room.

"I'm a horrible person," Ginny said pulling away from Ron who got up and made Hermione sit down.

"No, you're not." Hermione said as Ron picked up his half eaten sandwich and cup from the table. "What happened?"

"On Monday, I went to his office to break up with him, but he wasn't there so I looked in his pensieve," Ginny said.

"You what? Ginevra Weasley, that was unconscionable!"

"I didn't set out to do it! It was just there, I couldn't help myself, the thing is everything was just like he'd said, and I felt terrible and then he was there, he saw me and I-I"

"You attacked him, what did you say?" Hermione asked frowning.

"I called him a liar." Then rushing to prove that she'd been right to do so she added, "he'd told me he didn't sell Dark Arts products but on his desk were papers that said he did, in other countries. He said he'd meant in England, that the things he sells are perfectly legal where he sells them."

"Ginny, you have to understand he's a business man, all business men are do those things," Hermione said gently.

"I know! I'm not stupid, it's just at the time I wasn't thinking and then I said he was just being a Slytherin saying one thing and meaning another and he got angry and told me to grow up." She looked at Hermione who looked like she agreed with Draco's assessment. "I stomped out of the room, but I got home and I-I sent in the application."

"Finally! How long have I been at you to send that in? No! 'I like doing research for Fred, I like filing papers, I _want_ to be a trophy wife.' Honestly!" Hermione huffed "and all _he_ has to do is tell you to grow up!"

"It wasn't that, he said other things!"

"So that's why you were crying that doesn't sound too bad, just go and apologize."

"No, I was crying because I'd made Mum cry, she hates Draco and me too!"

"She doesn't hate you she was just shocked," Hermione put her arm around Ginny correctly surmising the nature of her conversation with Molly, "and she doesn't hate Draco!"

"Yes she does, and so do you and so does everyone!" Ginny started crying again noticing how Hermione didn't tell her she was wrong.

* * *

A/N: Thurs. May 19, 2004. Here we are, didn't make you wait too long this time did I? The next chapter will be up as soon as I can sit down and type it up. 


	25. Making up

Chapter 25: Making up

After he'd left the Ministry confused about what had driven him to ask about Ginny when he knew full well that Percy's acceptance was nothing but the forethought of an intelligent man. Percy knew that the Malfoy name would one day be good again; Draco had already noticed how the business men were the only ones who thought him worthy of conversation.

He'd forgotten to speak to Luke, but he knew he'd get to speak with him soon enough. When Draco arrived at his office he was intent on reading the report and thankful to _Percy_ that he'd only looked at the front page and the signature at the end. He'd been mortified by the idea of _Percy_ Weasley reading what ever sins the report detailed. Unfortunately, on his arrival to the building James Norton fell upon him stuttering about cancellations so Draco had thrown the papers on his desk beside the employee files without even having had time to contact Carwin and spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday traveling around Britain to the various shops across the island talking the merchants into keeping their products in stock. He promised them that soon enough the whole thing would be cleared up and that it was just a mistake. Very soon the hatred and jealousy that he'd harbored in Hogwarts for Hermione Granger came back as he was reminded at every turn that Hermione _Weasley_ didn't make mistakes! It was almost as if the woman was a god, for Merlin's sake!

Thankfully charm and money still worked and he'd been able to convince them to go through with the orders all ready placed and promised that if the products didn't sell in a year and he hadn't been absolved he would give them all their money back, he just hoped it didn't come to that because by then they'd probably have to pry the money out of his dead hands after his father killed him for ruining the three hundred year old family business.

On Thursday, after finally catching up with the past week's work and settling down his employees for whom the dilemma had finally become too real, especially the accountants who knew the state of things for the company, he was able to sit back and study the Ministry report. What he read shocked him, the report was line after line of complaints from a House-Elf that was never named; they barely mentioned the accommodations. The report was very biased and he knew his House-Elves would never say these things as Wheezy was authorized to do anything necessary to keep them happy.

He was pissed; whoever was framing him was going to wish they'd never messed with a Malfoy. He spied the employee records on the table and realized he'd never examined them. He wasn't expecting to find anything he didn't already know as he'd done an extensive investigation five years ago when he'd discovered the fraudulence of his Vice-President, but maybe there was something that he had overlooked in his inexperience.

He picked up the first folder only to be interrupted by Cassandra's voice, "Mr. Carwin is here to see you."

"Let him in," Draco sighed and stood up to receive him.

"Hello, I have terrible news for you!" the man smiled as he walked in and flopped down on one of the chairs in front of Draco's desk.

Draco sat down slowly, "I had a feeling; have they discovered an Avada Kedavraed House-Elf downstairs?"

"No, you should cremate those," he answered without pausing, Draco wondered if that was normal for this guy, "worse."

"Worse?"

"One of my contacts tells me the Ministry's found a paper trail leading to some Muggle bank account in the Cayman Islands."

"How? We have no papers to trail! Isn't that the problem?" Draco asked exasperated.

"Inside leak, someone stole the papers and fixed them, where's the Veritaserum?"

"No, you're not allowed to drug my employees until I've talked to them." Draco said thinking about how much pain Dan would put him through if he allowed Carwin near her.

"Why not?" Carwin looked affronted and Draco was surprised to see that the man had an expression other than open joviality.

"Because you think Darwin and Dan are up to no good when I know one's a charlatan and the other's a crappy artist, not our thieves." Draco said and stood to indicate the meeting was over. Carwin stood and was walking out of the office when Draco stopped him. He duplicated the Ministry report and handed the copy to Carwin, "something to do."

He sat heavily in his chair and began to look at his employees files to find that everything was exactly as he'd remembered it although it seemed as if Hill was taking more vacation days than he was allowed, there was nothing that would implicate any of his employees, and he'd simply have to talk to them himself tomorrow.

He was about to close Samantha's file when he saw something that made him smile, she had worked at Mentis Merchandise, the company Ginny had worked at, and now he could go ask Ginny all about her. As he walked past his desk he doubled back and grabbed the Ministry report maybe if she was in a good mood she would be willing to talk to Granger for him.

Draco stood outside Ginny's door and stared at the 2-D in front of him. He imagined that it stared back at him and he glared at its audacity, sighing he lifted his hand to knock when a door down the hall opened and the old cow stepped out of 2-A. She scowled at Draco and he flashed her a smile while leaning against the window sill; she shuffled off down the stairs grumpily, _undoubtedly it took an immense effort to move_.

He turned back to the door and knocked.

"Give me a minute!" Her voice drifted out.

He looked out the window to see the wall of the building next door. The door opened and he saw her walk away without giving him a glance. He stepped in hesitantly, there was a chance that she'd hurt him when she realized it was him. She stopped suddenly and he noticed that she was tense.

Draco stiffened as she turned around and began running right at him, she was going to hurt him! He tried to sidestep but the hallway was tight and she was on him, hugging him! Her grip tightened and he wondered if she wasn't trying to choke him, "I'm sorry," they managed to say simultaneously.

* * *

Ginny stood before her mirror contemplating whether or not she should go. She was dressed in pale blue summer dress and her hair hung softly around her neck, she figured if she were to apologize looking nice he'd be much more inclined to accept it. 

She thought back to earlier when she'd finished crying all over Hermione.

"_Maybe it's for the best." Hermione said hesitantly._

"_What?" Ginny asked confused as to exactly how her family hating the man she loved was for the best._

"_Don't tell Ron," Ginny rolled her eyes as if she'd tell _Ron_ anything, "but my department just got an anonymous tip and they've uncovered a trail of papers revealing where the money has been going." Hermione said with a frown, "it seems he really has been taking the money"_

_Ginny pulled away from her, "No, it can't be true, I refuse to believe it." Then with more confidence, "it's a set-up, I mean 'anonymous tip'! How suspicious is that?"_

"_Ginny, I don't think it's good to get your hopes up like that." Hermione warned._

"_I'm not getting my hopes up, I'm, I'm just having a little faith." She answered resolutely and rushed out of the room with a wave leaving Hermione with a frown on her face._

Now she stood in front of the mirror and wondered if maybe Hermione wasn't right, she was getting her hopes up imagining that it was all a twisted joke everyone was playing on her and they'd live happily ever after. She heard someone at the door and yelled, "Give me a minute!" She'd just heard Mrs. Canfora leave her apartment and figured the woman had come to yell about Ginny's pet owl leaving droppings on her fire escape as if there were no other birds in the vicinity!

Ginny opened the door without paying attention to who was standing there and started walking down the hallway back to the living room where she would ignore the woman for the next thirteen minutes and forty-two seconds, she stopped at the threshold, the hairs on the back of her neck standing when she heard a heavy step and she turned around quickly to see Draco standing there nervously she couldn't contain her glee as she rushed to hug him, "I'm sorry," they said simultaneously.

"You were right Draco, I _was_ clinging to the past, and I'm done now." Ginny said, "Anything you want to know I'll tell, if you want to meet my family just say the word and I'll take you there, although I warn you they're not very fond of you."

"No, that's okay," he said nervously, "because you were right, too," _be a man_, he told himself, _she's being honest, you can too_, "I don't like your family and I can't promise that I ever will, I was just trying 'cause I know they're important to you."

"That's sweet," she said a little annoyed that he'd admitted that, she sort of wished he kept that to himself and then she could pretend, _no, pretending is in the past_. Ginny pulled away from him and walked down the hallway and closed the door. They sat down on the sofa in an uncomfortable silence neither knowing what to say or whether they should say anything at all. "I was just going to go over to the Manor, to surprise you."

"Really, what made you change your mind about me?" Draco asked.

"What you said and what I saw in the pensieve, you _have_ always been honest with me and I should trust you, well, except about how you felt about my family, but then I can't blame you for that," Ginny said, "I would've done the same thing."

"No, you wouldn't have, because you didn't. I think anytime my father came up you cursed him out." Draco said smug as he saw her turn red, then he smiled and pulled her towards him glad to be able to touch her again.

Ginny couldn't help but smile, "Well, it doesn't matter if you and my family don't like each other, I'll change your minds yet!" She smiled and looked into his grey eyes, flecks of blue barely noticeable she said, "I love you" and afraid to wait for an answer she kissed him poring herself into him.

He returned the kiss and although they'd kissed hundreds of times before Ginny now realized both of them had been holding back substituting skill for feeling. When they finally parted Ginny, out of breath, tightened her arms around Draco hugging him close and he said what she already knew "I love you, too."

* * *

A/N: Thurs. May 19, 2004. The horrible chapter titles continue... 


	26. Revelations

Chapter 26: Revelations

Friday morning Draco awoke uncomfortably. Quickly realizing that the reason for this was that Ginny had him pinned to the couch, although he reveled in the feel of her skin on his nature called and so he performed some quick acrobatics and was soon free of the couch. Even though he'd just turned her about completely she didn't so much as give an indication that she would awaken. He stood above her and couldn't help but smile at her light snores. He made his way through her very messy bedroom into the bathroom.

He stepped out of the shower a few minutes later and with a wave of his wand was dry. It was times like these he was glad he was a wizard. He found his clothing easily with a quick _Accio_ and within a few minutes they looked as fresh as if they were brand new.

He retuned to the living room and saw that she was still sleeping soundly so he crossed the room to the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast. He was amused to no end when the bacon and eggs began sizzling wafting their aroma around the kitchen and he heard a thump. He quickly walked to the door and opened it a crack and saw Ginny on the floor next to the sofa still half asleep smelling the air.

About ten minutes later she walked in wearing a bathrobe her damp hair smelling of strawberries. He set down two plates bearing scrambled eggs, bacon and toast on the table and she smiled. She walked up to him and put her arms around him. "If I knew you'd cook I would have done this long ago." She kissed him.

"If I were you I wouldn't get my hopes up, this, hotdogs and burgers are the only thing I can make." He said as she sat down to eat. He sat down across from her and seeing her scarf down her food, no longer taking the dainty bites he was accustomed to, he wondered how much of their behavior was done only for the benefit of the other person.

Remembering yesterday's mission he asked, "Have you ever heard of Samantha Alden?"

Ginny swallowed the mouthful of food she had and said "Yeah, she used to be Mentis' secretary before me. He still pays her for something though." She took a sip of the orange juice he'd set out, "probably so that she won't tell his wife about their affair." Ginny looked at him strangely, "why are you asking about her?"

"Because she's my House-Elf Rights Manager," Draco said angrily. He wasn't surprised to find out about the fact that Samantha had an affair with her last boss however he was suspicious now about why she was still on Mentis' payroll. Especially since the release of The Electrifier Mentis was Draco's biggest competitor. She was indeed brilliant; seemingly so stupid he'd never given her a second thought except to think about firing her.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked noticing how quickly Draco's frown deepened.

"I'm not sure but I think she's the one that's gotten me into all of this trouble, well on Mentis' orders." He said.

"What? Why? Why would Mentis be trying to set you up?"

"Until very recently no reason but it's obvious he's had this in the works for at least two years." Draco stood, "it has to do with The Electrifier. You see Mentis was the largest provider of household appliances to Britain. The way it was done is simple objects would be spelled with the different charms that would make them do … whatever. Mentis is really selling the spells as his company is the only one that knows them. He'd make his money because the spells he placed on the items would eventually wear off and the costumer would have to bring it in to one of his stores to have the spells reset; for a fee of course. The Electrifier eliminates all of that With The Electrifier simple Muggle objects can be used, no special spells are needed so even a first year can operate it."

"Doesn't that make you lose money as well if they can be used indefinitely?" Ginny said.

"Nah, in a month or two we'll be coming out with the new and improved model that lets one tap last for three hours." He said, "Besides everything breaks, a kid will hit it with a bludger or a stray spell with destroy the wiring…" He stopped pacing as he glanced at the kitchen clock. "I have to get to work." He said and walked towards Ginny. Suddenly he remembered the Ministry report, and he pulled the miniaturized report from his pocket and returning it to its original size he passed it to Ginny, "do you think Granger will take a look at this for me?"

"Weasley, I mean Hermione"

"Fine, _Hermione_." Draco said, a slight whine in his voice.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "I don't see why she wouldn't. Meet me here at 2:30 pm and we'll go see her."

"What do you mean _we_?" Draco asked suspicious.

"You're the one that needs the favor so _you_ ask her." She said standing.

Realizing he wasn't going to win this argument he gave in quickly, "Fine I will, see you then." He kissed her quickly and practically ran out of the apartment. In the hallway he made sure there was no one around and quickly apparated away.

Draco apparated to his office and summoned Carwin to him and they discussed the newly acquired information about Samantha Alden. He let the detective know that he was supposed to find out anything he could about Samantha without alerting her to the fact that she was being investigated. Of course, Draco soon regretted saying anything as Carwin felt very insulted at the warning and for the first time since Draco had met him stopped smiling, revealing a very terrifying gaze. Draco took special care to be extra polite during the rest of the meeting.

Of course around lunch time Dan showed up to tell him all about electro-magnetic waves and radio waves and how the spell was coming but in the end Draco understood about as much as he had when Theus had explained it to him, although he got the impression that they were closer than ever now, which coupled with last night's activities and this morning's discovery left him feeling so happy he was whistling to himself when two o'clock came around.

He'd been standing outside of Ginny's door for fifteen minutes when he got tired of waiting and began hurling unlocking spells at it. A few minutes later he heard steps on the stairs and quickly put his wand away leaning against the window sill until he saw red hair emerge from the stairs.

"What took you so long?" He asked and looking at his watch added, "I've been waiting for twenty-three minutes!"

"Practice ran a little longer than usual," she said pulling her key out of her purse, "the closer the opening day gets the more David obsesses about _perfection_." She approached the door and reached for the handle but stopped and pulled her wand out of her purse. She waved it at the door and watched as the door glowed red.

"_Draco_, what did you do to my door?" She asked turning to see him trying to smile innocently.

"I got bored so I tried to open it, you have like a thousand spells on that thing!"

"Hey, I don't have an Auror in the family for nothing," she said as she finally unlocked the door, "the only way to open this thing is the muggle way."

"Then how did your brother and Potter walk in on us that night?"

"We have the keys to each others houses, for emergency purposes." She said walking down the hallway quickly she turned into the living room and dropping her purse on the sofa as she passed it she plunged herself into her room quickly and grabbed a package from her closet. She ran back into the living room and saw Draco looking at the pictures on her mantle with an expression she couldn't decipher. She grabbed her purse and crossed the room to the fireplace where she grabbed the pot of Floo powder from the edge of the mantle and silently passed it to Draco. "Hermione's house is called 'The Athenaeum'." She said and she stepped into the green flames.

Draco stepped out of the fireplace into a small room with several wooden chairs arranged on the walls on either side. Directly across from the fireplace was a door with a knocker on it which Ginny was now violently banging in a pattern that seemed to correspond to "London Bridge is Falling Down."

"She named her house the library?" Draco asked her above the din but never received an answer as the door was wrenched open and a voice yelled, "I wish you wouldn't do that! I don't know why you don't just use your key!" A large cloud of curly hair walked away from the door. "I've told you you're not allowed to Floo in."

"I know but Draco's with me," Ginny said as if this was obvious, "how else would he know where to go."

Draco who'd stepped out of the room unto an Entryway saw _Hermione_ stop abruptly. Ginny glided to a stop and Draco hovered near the door ready to hop back in the Floo at any moment.

Hermione turned, her eyes falling on him and he saw them widen slightly before they narrowed into small slits. She headed towards Draco but instead of slapping him as he expected, for the look she gave him was much the same she'd given him in 3rd year, she walked into the large lounge across from the Floo Room. The room had a large comfortable beige couch facing a large fireplace, with a mantle covered in many of the same photographs that were in Ginny's apartment. Draco was once against struck by this occurrence, it annoyed him that their family was so close, it was starting to seem as if his plan to conceal Ginny away so that neither of them had anything to do with her family was not going to work.

The lounge was decorated in different shades of blue and beige. Draco stood at the doorway and ignored Ginny and Hermione's whispered argument as he studied the lounge; it was decorated in a quiet elegance that surprised him. It made him realize, much more than anything he'd heard or seen in the last few years how much had changed. Somehow knowing Weasley was a Healer and Granger a Ministry Director had done nothing to change his perception of them, however being in their home and not seeing the hovel he had always pictured in the back of his mind and in fact seeing a very beautiful and sophisticated house even if not in the league of his Manor made him rethink his opinions of the pair. That is until he noticed a very familiar looking object on top of a bookcase near the door. Draco walked towards it, sure enough it was an orrery from the Founder's time that was said to be owned by Ravenclaw herself. Draco remembered his mother trying to buy it a few months ago only to have been out bid; seeing it in Weasley's home grated on his nerves. It just wasn't right that Weasley should own things that _Draco_ couldn't afford.

"Alright!" _Hermione_ exclaimed losing whatever argument she'd been having with Ginny. She turned to him and wearing an obviously fake smile held out her hand. Draco walked the four feet to her and shook her hand warily. "It is a _pleasure_ to meet you." She said not hiding her disdain for him.

"Likewise." He gritted his teeth and turned a glare on Ginny, he would have preferred if Granger had been mean then he needn't have worried about his own behavior.

"Please have a seat." Granger said moving quickly into the most comfortable chair in the room. "Tea?"

Draco sat beside Ginny on the couch as she answered, "I'll go get it." He barely had to protest at her departure as she flew out of the room and down the hallway.

"What have you told her?" Granger asked angrily and Draco brightened considerably.

"What are you talking about?" Draco asked leaning back suddenly finding himself in comfortable territory once again.

"What lies have you fed her, about your innocence, your father's? You have her convinced that the report you have is genuine she hasn't even looked at it!" She hissed at him.

"I don't know what you are speaking of but I can guarantee you that it is genuine," Draco pulled out the report and enlarged it laying it on the coffee table before him and sliding it closer to Granger. "I didn't _try_ to convince her of anything. She was quite willing; hell, she even ripped off my clothes within seconds. Your happy little family didn't even cross her mind once, and you know that before our fight she was too bloody happy with me to even think of any of you. Forgot about that casserole rather quickly didn't she?" Hermione's face flushed pink and she picked up the report angrily. She thumbed through it not really looking at it just avoiding those mocking grey eyes. "The report is genuine." Draco said without emotion. "If anything is false about it, it's whatever your little minion wrote in it. No doubt hoping to get a nice Christmas bonus for taking down the big, bad Malfoys."

Hermione stood up quickly her face now very red, Draco was surprised that someone that fat could move that quickly and she spat, "Are you implying that one of my employees deliberately filed an incorrect complaint."

"What, is it so hard to believe? It's alright for a Malfoy to be accused of anything even if they didn't do it, but I can't say anything about a blatantly malicious act," Draco said also standing out of the corner of his eyes he saw Ginny coming down the hallway walking as quickly as she could while carrying a tray.

"I will not have you insult me and my employees, _Malfoy_!" She yelled shaking slightly, "I don't want the filth of a _Death Eater_ tainting my home, get out of my house now!"

"As if I want to be in the home of a fucking mudblood!" He yelled and stomped towards the front door.

"Draco!" Ginny yelled outraged that he would say such a thing, she placed the tray on a nearby table and hastily moved to confront him when a yell stopped both of them in their tracks. She looked into the lounge to see Hermione holding on to the arm of the couch with one arm and her belly with the other.

She was breathing very hard and Ginny rushed towards her Draco's footsteps hesitant behind hers. "Hermione what's wrong?"

"My water broke," she huffed.

"What!" Ginny gasped, "but, there's another month to go!"

"Ron said it could happen, if I didn't get enough rest," she said looking up at Ginny, "or I was too stressed," she added glaring at Draco who hovered at the doorway.

"We need to get you to St. Mungo's," Ginny said taking hold of Hermione's arm and helping her towards the door, "Ron's there. He'll know what to do."

A/N: Fri. May 20, 2004. I took long enough, huh? On the other hand, the story is close to its end.


	27. Welcome to the Family

Chapter 27: Welcome to the Family

They'd managed to Floo to St. Mungo's without much incident except for the insults levied at Draco by the women which he let go graciously as he knew that it _was_ partially his fault.

"Mrs. Weasley!" the woman behind the desk exclaimed and stood up leading them quickly to the "Maternity Ward" which was really a small waiting room outside a bedroom in the back of the 1st Floor as most wizarding families preferred to have a midwife come to their homes. The room was only used when complications arose that couldn't be handled in the home.

As soon as they entered the room the witch hurried away to find Healer Weasley. Ginny and Draco had just managed to settle Hermione into the bed when another contraction came over her and she yelled, "I'm going to fucking kill you; Avada Kedavra you right to hell!"

Draco wincing looked away from her to see an out of breath Weasley standing there shocked, obviously thinking that his wife was referring to him. Draco merely stepped away from the bed. And Weasley rushed towards the bed, his Healer robes open at the front showing that he wore Muggle clothes underneath as did so much of the Wizarding populace these days. He walked past Draco without giving him a second glance and changed Hermione's robes for hospital robes with a wave of his wand. Hermione had upon seeing Ron relaxed visibly and was now lying back while he waved his wand over her the occasional glow coming from her body.

Things weren't faring as well for Draco as Ginny was approaching him angrily. Draco cursed the heels she wore as they robbed him of his only advantage. She looked straight at him, her ears and neck flushed with the anger and stress of the last few minutes, "How could you say those things to her?" She hissed at him.

"She provoked me!" Draco hissed back wondering why he was even trying to win this argument.

"How?"

"She implied I forged the report!" He shot back getting angry himself as he remembered the unfairness of her attitude towards him, of the shame he'd felt when he'd gone to pick up the report from the House-Elf Liaison Office.

"She's pregnant!" Ginny said, changing her tact, "How could you yell at a pregnant woman?"

"You didn't tell me she had a high-risk pregnancy so this is just as much your fault!"

"You're right," Ginny suddenly said quietly, "this _is_ my fault. I should never have expected you to treat my only sister like a normal human being." She hissed.

"Don't you have like three others?" Draco said before he could stop himself worried by her sudden change in tone.

"I have three other sister-in-laws, but Hermione is also my best-friend." She sighed as if defeated and added, "you can go home now. I have to go contact the rest of my family." She walked away her head hung in defeat.

She walked out of the room and Draco stood there confused as to what to do and he realized that once again he'd underestimated the bond between the Weasleys but he wasn't willing to lose Ginny again. The past two weeks had been the loneliest of his life and if all he had to do to never feel that way again was to be nice to her family…so be it.

Next to the bed he heard Ron ask Hermione "How did this happen? I told you to take it easy."

Hermione glanced at Draco and was about to speak when Draco spoke up "It was my fault."

The calm, caring Ron in front of him disappeared and suddenly a red faced Ron holding a wand to Draco's neck stood in his place. "What the fuck did you do to my wife?"

"I- I didn't mean to!" Draco said resisting the urge to pull out his own wand. "I didn't know she was sick, we got into an argument."

"The reason she is sick is because of your Death Eater buddies! During the final battle they hit her with some curses that are still affecting her!" Ron pressed the wand harder.

"That's not my fault! I had nothing to do with that!" Draco spit out.

"Only because," Ron began only to be interrupted by Hermione.

"Ron, leave him alone!" Hermione said breathing heavily obviously recovering from the latest contraction. "It's not his fault! I yelled at him, he only defended himself and besides I was cleaning before they arrived so I was already overdoing it."

"But- but," Ron splutter obviously unsure of what to do until an old woman clad in shocking yellow robes walked into the room.

"Healer Weasley!" She said scandalized and Ron quickly put away his wand.

"Midwife Smith," Hermione said, "how is your daughter? Ron told me she was also in labor."

"It went swimmingly; I have a pretty little granddaughter now." She walked toward the bed removing her wand from a satchel she carried with her. "Mr. Malfoy if you could please excuse us?"

"Of course," Draco speeding towards the door; in the doorway he stopped and turned looking Hermione in the eye, "I really am sorry, Gran- Hermione."

"Me too," she said with a small smile.

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him just as Ginny walked into the waiting room and he was glad he'd decided to stay if only to see the shocked expression on her face when she saw him standing there.

"Why are you still here?" She walked towards him.

"Figured this is as good a time as any to meet your family." He met her in the middle of the room. She smiled and threw her arms around him and they kissed; it was in the middle of this that Molly Weasley arrived.

"Ginevra! Do you have no respect!" She said crossing her arms in front of her.

"Oh!" Ginny said pulling away from Draco and clenching her fists, "Mother! There was no one here!"

"_I'm_ here, anyone could have walked in," she said glaring at Draco.

"And no one would have cared," Ginny said pulling Draco towards the chairs. She made a face at her mother as she sat and Molly huffed as she made her way to the chairs farthest from her.

After several minutes of silence Harry Potter and a woman he assumed was Sally of the casserole arrived to Draco's relief as they took Molly's attention off of Draco and Ginny. Ron emerged from the room with good news and allowed Molly, Harry and Sally to go in to speak to Hermione while he rushed off to their home to pick up a few things.

When they emerged the three looked shocked and Draco and Ginny wondered what had happened to leave them so stunned. Their questions were answered when Ron returned with a bag.

"Mate, I reckon you've been a bad influence on her." Harry said shaking his head.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked his hand on the doorknob to the room.

"She was saying things I can't even repeat without blushing," Harry said.

Ron let out a loud guffaw, "I've been telling you for years she swears around the house; you never believed me." Ron said walking into the room.

Angelina and Penny soon walked in; one of Penny's teachers having agreed to baby-sit the children and the women with the exception of Ginny who refused to go near her mother were soon discussing their own pregnancies while Harry stared at Draco as if he were some puzzle he were trying to figure out.

An hour later Draco finally got some rest as Bill and Fleur showed up closely followed by Fred effectively removing Harry's attention away from him as well as Ginny who'd been leaning against his arm for so long it had fallen asleep. He quickly stood up telling Ginny he was going to the cafeteria. "Does anyone need anything?" He announced hoping they wouldn't and thankfully the Universe complied as everyone declined the offer. Draco walked out of the room and let out a huge breath as soon as the door closed behind him.

Unfortunately Ginny wasn't able to escape that easily as the minute the door closed behind Draco everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to her.

Fred spoke up first, "why exactly were you using Draco Malfoy as a pillow?"

"The hospital was out?" She cringed at her lame joke and rolled her eyes in defeat, "We've been dating for three months."

"And you didn't tell us?" Angelina asked shocked.

"I thought you would hate each other!" Ginny exclaimed.

"And what gave you that impression?" Fred asked, "The fact that we hate each other? I just don't understand why you would date him in the first place?"

"I- He- He looked so miserable eating all by himself. I- I don't know!" Ginny said exasperated and upset that she was lying to her family but last night she had sworn to herself that she would never tell anyone about her Plan, it would only hurt Draco's feelings and she wasn't willing to be apart from him ever again.

"What about everything he's ever done to you?" Harry challenged.

"We were kids and if you would all stop being so dammed self righteous you'd remember that we gave as good as we got." Ginny stood up and addressed the room. "We're all adults now, I think it's time to let go of old grudges." She glanced at her mother, "I won't say that Draco's different now, because he isn't, although he likes to pretend he is, he's still a prat but he loves me and he won't hurt me and if you give him a chance you'll see that he's a very sweet prat."

"He loves you?" Molly asked, "how would _you_ know?"

"Because, he's here." Ginny said walking out of the room to find Draco.

In the cafeteria Ginny didn't tell Draco about her conversation with her family and instead they spent the next hour trying to toss bits of chocolate into each other's mouth. That is until Draco threw one into the tea of an angry looking matron who would have hexed them if Draco and Ginny hadn't run out of the cafeteria earning a reproving glare from a passing Healer.

When they entered the waiting room all of the Weasleys turned to them and Draco noticed that Arthur and Percy Weasley were also in attendance. Draco and Ginny stood awkwardly at the door as everyone stared and Arthur Weasley stood up and walked up to them extending his hand out to Draco who clasped it in his own. "Welcome to the family."

Draco didn't know what to say so he just shook the man's hand and smiled. Ginny however was not at a loss for words as she launched herself at her father causing him to let go of Draco. While Ginny regaled her father with all the reasons she'd always known he was the best father ever Draco slipped into an empty chair next to Percy. "Hey, thanks for helping me Tuesday." As Draco and Percy got into a discussion about the Ministry's new policies Draco heard Fred say to Harry, "Figures he gets along with _Percy_."

Although Ron came out periodically and informed them of Hermione's progress it was soon night and Penny and Percy went home to relieve the babysitter and take care of the children.

It was around eleven when Ron finally emerged a big smile on his face. "I have a son," he said beaming. "He's perfectly healthy although he's a little underweight, but not by much. He's completely bald and wrinkly and he's beautiful!"

"What's his name?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Have no idea," Ron said wearily, "Hermione and I haven't been able to agree on anything."

"_That's_ a surprise," Draco said earning a glare from Ron and laughs from everyone else, and _that_ was a surprise.

A/N: Fri. May 20, 2004


	28. Parkinson Manor

Chapter 28: Parkinson Manor

After Ron announced his son's birth the family left the hospital and returned to their homes happy to know that the newest member of the family was healthy. Draco spent the rest of the weekend at Ginny's because she had a television that worked, although she had not been too happy about the amount of time he spent in front of it. On Saturday they returned to the hospital to see The Baby who along with Hermione were being kept for observation on Ron's orders although Hermione told them the Midwife had declared both of them healthy and ready to return home. All in all it was the best weekend of Draco's life.

It was for this reason that when Draco arrived at his office on Monday morning more than a little late he was surprised to see Carwin sitting there waiting for him to return. The last two days had been so normal that Draco had completely forgotten that he had any troubles at all, so straightening his robes and slipping into his chair he attempted a smile for Carwin already knowing that whatever he would discover would not be good.

"Mr. Malfoy, I have finished my investigation of Ms. Alden," Carwin said eschewing any and all pleasantries.

Draco stopped himself from saying anything about Carwin's rudeness; after all according to Cassandra he had been waiting almost an hour for Draco to arrive. "And what have you discovered?"

"She was an Obliviator before the war. Her lover, a married man, died in the battle and she changed all her records to state that she died in the battle as well. She even went so far as to erase everyone's memories and convince them that she had died in the final battle. Her real name is Sam Aldred."

"The war hero, the one that was killed while defending a group of small children in front of Fortescues? The man?!" Draco stood and started pacing.

"The one and only."

"Ginny told me she was having an affair with her last employer," Draco said sinking into his chair.

"She is," Carwin said enjoying the show.

"Do you know how many times she, he, she threw herself at me and I was tempted and all along she's been a man!" Draco exclaimed leaning forward.

"What about Mentis he's actually been sleeping with her," Carwin said with a laugh and Draco couldn't help himself and started to laugh hysterically thinking that even if all of his troubles had been orchestrated by Mentis then knowing that he'd been sleeping with a man for the past four years was retribution enough.

"It is my suspicion that she may have Obliviated whoever it is that did the Ministry report." Carwin said.

"But why not just Obliviate the House-Elves to tell him that I am evil and beat them with baseball bats or something?" Draco asked.

"Baseball bats?"

"American thing, it's not important," Draco said then taking a deep breath, yelled, "Wheezy!"

Wheezy immediately appeared bowing down low, "Yes, Master Draco?"

"Has Samantha Alden ever come to you and tried to cast a spell on you?"

"Yes, Master, when she start working here she point her wand at Wheezy and say, 'Obliviate', but nothing happen and she left angrily. Wheezy has not spoken to her much since then," his voice shook.

"Why haven't you told me of this before?" Draco demanded.

The House-Elf shuddered, "House-Elves here to serve humans, she commanded me not to tell anyone. I thought it was a test of loyalty."

"So why are you telling me this now?" Draco asked curiously.

Wheezy was now shaking a lot and he stuttered, "You- you ask me and you are my Master and her Master, too."

Draco drew up a little straighter at this but did not miss Carwin's eye-roll. "That's all Wheezy, thanks" here the House-Elf stop shaking choosing instead to stare at Draco in surprise, "go drink some of that Shourry Tea." The House-Elf bowed low again and disappeared immediately.

"What's that?"

"Some blueberry tea they drink, disgusting really, way too sweet." Draco took a deep breath, "recently I have become… _acquainted_ with the Head of the Magical Creatures Department, so I will be discussing the possibility of one of her employees being Obliviated directly with her."

"By acquainted you mean you are dating her sister-in-law and so have decided to put aside your childhood feud." Carwin said with a smirk.

"How did- investigator, _right_." Draco said annoyed, _if he's so good why hasn't he figured everything out all ready?_

Carwin left soon afterward with a promise to keep him updated and Draco began to catch up with work that seemed to duplicate every time he turned around. At lunch he was sitting in the lounge area trying to read a report from one of the stores while eating the last of his favorite dessert, Rosmerta's Pumpkin Cheesecake, when the fireplace glowed green and Ginny's head appeared in his grate.

"Hey there handsome," she said with a too bright smile.

"What do you want?" He asked suspiciously.

"Why must I want something, can't I just want to say hi?" She asked.

"No."

"Alright, how's dinner with my family on Wednesday sound?" She asked with a guilty smile.

"What does the word family entail?" Draco sat up cautiously.

"Family means everyone we've ever met and dinner means all afternoon and night," she confessed with a shrug at his look of fear, she quickly added "you can bring people too, Dan and Theus!"

Draco raised his eyebrow, "what about Theus' family? They're my family too."

"Of course," she said quickly, "the more the merrier."

"Then yes!" Draco said with a smile.

As realization dawned on her Ginny's mouth went slack, "no! Not Parkinson!"

"_Pansy_, and it's too late," He grinned, "see you Wednesday."

Although being surrounded by Weasleys was a terrifying thought, Draco was glad he'd be able to have his own family close by. Unfortunately that was the highlight of his day. As in most Mondays Draco worked late and stayed in his room in the House-Elf floor. Tuesday went by much better, thanks to the fact that the sale reports for _The Electrifier_ came in and they were amazing, although he was upset that he was unable to go out with Ginny that night as he had his weekly dinner with the Parkinsons. He cringed at the thought of convincing Pansy to go with him; he knew that Dan and Theus would jump at the chance.

Draco was still grimacing as he stood in front of the manor and knocked on the door. The butler opened it and led Draco to the family room where he was soon assaulted by his "niece" and "nephew".

"Uncle Draco!" Bea exclaimed hugging him, Benji was hugging his knee and exclaiming "Unku Dwaco!"

"Don't have any candy this week," Draco said apologetically.

"Aaaaaw," Bea said pulling away from him and dragging herself to a corner where a small desk sat and she proceeded to draw a very interesting picture that looked like a monkey walking a horse. Draco bent down and picked up Benji who was still hugging him and kissed him in the cheek to which the skinny boy replied by kissing Draco on the chin. Draco sat down on the chair nearest to Bea and glanced at her picture trying to figure out exactly what was going on in it.

"Where are your parents?" Draco asked tickling Benji, who was now squealing loudly.

"Daddy's walking James," Bea said drawing Octopuses on sticks, "and Mummy's upstairs 'plaining to Uncle Theus about the stupid radio."

Processing this new information Draco realized that the "monkey" was Terry, "good picture of your Dad and you might want to put some leaves on those trees and don't say stupid, it's not nice."

"Mum's the one that said it," Bea said "and Aunt Dan said it wasn't always good to be nice."

"Your Aunt Dan is just an old meanie and where is she-ooooooooow!" He pulled Benji's hands away from his hair where the boy had decided was the best spot to get his 'Unku's' attention back to himself, the boy laughed as Draco yelled in pain. "You like that huh?"

Benji nodded excitedly.

"She's in the kitchen 'plaining about the damm coffee."

"Beatrice!" Draco growled as he pretended to eat Benji to the boy's delight.

"S_he_ said it!"

"Stop repeating grown-up words!" Benji scratched at his ear.

"Stupid grown-ups," she muttered, "don't let no one say nothin'."

Draco glared at the girl who stuck her tongue out at him just in time to be caught by Dan who walked into the room carrying a tray of cups of hot coffee and two sippy cups with hot chocolate, "Beatrice Boot! What have you been told about that tongue? It is to stay inside your mouth!"

"Not fair, there's rules for everything!" Then noticing the tray, "why do I have to have a baby cup? I'm a big girl, I'm five! I can drink out of big people cups!"

"So you can scald yourself like last week?" Dan asked sarcastically, "No! Now stop acting up for Uncle Draco and behave yourself or you will eat in your room by yourself."

"Uncle Draco's right, you _are_ an old meanie!" The girl said sticking just the tip of her tongue out at her drawing. Dan ignored it and pulled Benji away from Draco's hair as he'd been to busy spying to be of much use against the two year old's tight grip.

"If that weren't true I'd be very upset," she said placing Benji in his crib, "you've gotta watch him now, he's learned how to climb out of it." She gave the boy the sippy cup watched as he yawned. "Ignore Bea, she's just upset because we are testing the anti-magic ward in her room and she wasn't able to throw one successful fit with her tutor today."

"The jumpy fellow, _yeah_," Draco said remembering meeting the man, who seemed unwilling to ever turn his back on a child, "did you know I did a little investigating right after I met him, and I meant to tell you guys, early in his tutoring career this man taught a boy who in order to protest his incarceration turned the man halfway into a goat."

Dan laughed "no wonder he's so paranoid about accidental magic!"

"Guess who the child was?" He asked with a meaningful look.

"No!" Then through her laugher, "well, that explains why he ran out of here so quickly after being introduced to you!"

"Doesn't everyone run away quickly after meeting Draco though?" a tall thin man with brown hair walked into the room.

"I thought Pansy didn't allow wild animals in the house," Draco retorted.

"You used that one two weeks ago," he said sitting down on a couch and putting his feet up on the edge of Benji's playpen. "Actually I think it was better that time, so you're losing your touch."

The small boy stood up and pulled at his father's pant leg. "Terry, what's up with the radio?"

"Oh, Theus got to experimenting again," Terry said picking the boy out of the playpen and cradling him against his chest.

"So, that's what he does when he should be working on my products."

"I'm right _here_," Dan said from the tiny chair across from Bea where she was charming Bea's pictures to move, "and you know we're working hard, I gave you the report myself."

"_Relax_, I was joking and I read your very detailed, very confusing report, so yes, I believe that your working hard; that or it means nothing and you know I don't know the difference," Draco ignored her glare and turned to Terry, "So? What's wrong with the radio?"

"He tried to make the muggle radio pick up the wireless signal and now it won't play the CDs." Terry said softly as Benji had fallen asleep.

"By the way, he came up with that while working on _your_ products." Dan said.

"I don't care _how_ you do it just fix it. _You're_ the expert electrician," Pansy's voice carried into the room.

"As far as _wizards_ go," Theus answered making the three adults in the sitting room exchange smirks.

"You always say that when you don't know what you're talking about," Pansy whined as she walked into the room, "Dan! _Do_ something to him."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who let him mess with a brand new radio." Dan said.

"Mummy! Look all the drawings I made!" Bea exclaimed.

"Beatrice, softly, your brother's sleeping." Terry said getting up from the couch gently. "I'll go put him upstairs." He said standing and giving Pansy a kiss on the cheek as he walked past her. After five years of watching them Draco still couldn't believe them. They were so often touching, kissing, and they did it as naturally as of neither realized that they were doing it. Theus was just now standing behind Dan looking down at Bea's drawings and playing with her hair, even Dan and Theus when they were only friends they were always putting their arms around one another holding on to each other.

To him it was still sort of a foreign idea, if one that he longed for, that two people could be so in love that they didn't care what anyone thought. When he was younger his parents had always been very loving and caring with him, but never with each other at least not in public. He'd discovered at a very young age that when his parents thought he'd gone up to bed they would sit in the family parlor and hug and kiss and cuddle, so he'd sneak down every night and spy on them through the key hole in the door, they never knew he was there because he was very good at sneaking around. He still remembered the very last time they'd ever had their nightly ritual.

His mother had been away for her annual trip to Paris and had come straight to King's Cross from France to pick him up after school let out. She'd been carrying her suitcase and she'd kissed in on the cheek and hugged him just a little longer when he'd offered to carry her bag. She'd laughed and levitated both of them over to a secluded corner when she clinging to Draco and the trunk and bag Disapparated them both to Malfoy Manor. When they arrived at the manor everything looked a little off and they stood there puzzled until they realized that everything was just a little cleaner and shinier alerting Narcissa and Draco to the fact that Lucius was in a foul mood and that the House-Elves were doing their best to keep him happy.

He wasn't home at the time, but Draco ignored his mother's worry and focused on bossing the House-Elves around to unpack his things. They were always extra attentive when his father was angry and he knew how to take advantage, they were going to make all his favorite foods for dinner. One thing he did notice however was that Dobby, one of the lower House-Elves, an extremely weird one that was always getting into trouble was missing, but figured his father had finally gotten tired of its mistakes and had set it free and that was why the House-Elves were all worried. He smiled at his brilliant reasoning and forgot about it. He father did not show up at dinner or before Draco was to go to bed, late that night a loud noise woke him up and he snuck down to see what was happening. He knew if his father had arrived he'd be in the family parlor and he went to spy through the keyhole.

His mother had obviously been reading on the couch as beside her lay an open book, but currently she was sweeping his father's hair out of his face as he lay across the couch his muddy shoes staining the delicate silk, his head in her lap his while his hugged her waist tightly. For a moment Draco felt like throwing a tantrum and demanding an explanation since he was never even allowed to lay on the couch much less with his shoes on, but a lone tear escaped his father's eye as he talked quietly to Narcissa and she gently swept it away. Draco turned around and went back to his room. The next night he watched his mother read for hours by herself and the night after that he watched her cry for what seemed like hours. By the next week she'd moved into a suite of bedrooms in the other side of the manor. His family had never been the same after that. Later as he'd sat in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom he'd wish he had walked in maybe things would have ended differently. It was why now that he knew what it mean to be in love he was determined to make sure things worked out he didn't want to be like his parents hiding their love behind closed doors.

"Draco, you're awfully quiet tonight, everything okay?" Pansy asked from the small table where she and Dan were drawing with Bea.

He shook his head to clear it of old memories and smiled, "yeah, fine." He looked around, "where's Theus?"

"Loo," Pansy answered.

"I have a request to make when he and Terry get back." He said nervously.

"Request?" Dan asked teasingly, "I thought Malfoy's demanded. This is a first, we _must_ alert The Prophet." She chuckled even as Terry entered the room wondering what the joke was.

"Draco's got a request," Pansy giggled at Draco's look of annoyance.

"His royal Highness must really want this to be so nice about it," Terry laughed sitting back in his earlier position.

Draco started to respond when the butler entered the room indicating that dinner was ready and Draco realized that after all these years he still didn't know the butler's name.

He followed everyone into the dinning room and as they were sitting Theus returned.

"So, what was your _request_?" Pansy asked turning to Draco expectantly.

Draco saw Theus raise an eyebrow and he frowned, _I always ask for things nicely, mostly, _then remembering his purpose his smiled widely, if a little falsely and ignored their wary looks, "I wondered if you all would want to have dinner with my girlfriend's family tommorow?"

"What girlfriend?" Terry and Pansy asked as Dan and Theus asked, "You're back together?"

Draco ignored the Boots and answered Dan and Theus, "Yeah, Will you?"

"Of course!" Theus exclaimed.

Draco turned to Pansy, "So?" Unfortunately she narrowed he eyes and asked, "_Who_ is she?"

"An old friend of Terry's actually," Draco said.

"Mine? From Hogwarts?" At Draco's nod Terry's wheels started turning, he'd only really kept in touch with Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner, but they hadn't mentioned anything to him about this, "A Ravenclaw?"

"Actually, no." Draco said reddening slightly he whispered, "a Gryffindor."

Pansy gasped.

"A Gryffindor, but I didn't really hang out with any Gryffindors except for – NO!" Terry exclaimed. Pansy looked desperate to find out who they were discussing, but Terry sat back in shock. He finally gathered himself together enough to ask "_You_ are dating Ginny Weasley?"

Pansy turned her head abruptly to see Draco nod his head sheepishly, she yelled "But!" She took a deep breath then as if she were explaining to Bea why she couldn't turn the sky green she said, "She's one of those Weasleys, you can't date her, they have no class."

"Pansy!" Terry said reprovingly. "The Weasleys are good people."

"They're not up to our level," she insisted. "Draco, what will your mother think? She'll be furious when she returns to find her son handing around with trash, specially that Weasley girl, she's got a reputation. She goes through men like," she paused lost for a metaphor, "like Narcissa goes through dresses."

Draco calmly replied having already been prepared for Pansy's reaction, "I don't care what she thinks."

"You're father-"

"Already knows, and is pissed and I don't care." Draco replied reaching for the bowl of salad which had appeared at the table several minutes ago.

"We'll go." Terry said eyeing his wife.

"But," Pansy started, but stopped upon noticing the look Terry was giving her and grabbing her fork she stabbed at a piece of tomato on her plate.

"Where are we going Daddy?" Bea asked looking up from the lettuce she was munching on.

"Tomorrow, we're going to eat dinner at Uncle Draco's girlfriend's house."

"Are there going to be kids?" She asked Draco.

"Yes." Draco said looking down at her.

"Yheeeeey!" She said grabbing another piece of lettuce with her hands.

Pansy pouted at her daughter thinking her a traitor and petulantly said, "you must eat _all_ your vegetables, not just the lettuce and _do_ use a fork." Bea made a face at her mother and picking up the salad fork stabbed the lettuce in her hand through it then continued to munch on it.

"How about those Caerphilly Catapults?" Theus asked awkwardly, but Terry had a lot to say on the topic and soon the men were involved in a heated Quiddtich discussion, while Dan played a food game with Bea which involved throwing pieces of vegetables in the air and catching them with their mouths. Everyone chose to ignore the pouting Pansy.

* * *

A/N: Mon. May 22, 2004 and Tues. May 23, 2004. Someone asked about this date so here goes: This date is the date in the story. Originally the chapters were in a different sequence and I would write the date in the bottom so that you guys would know what happened when, but it got too complicated so I put the chapters in chronological order, but I still put the date out of habit and for my own benefit. I tend to confuse myself very easily. 


	29. Slytherin Invasion

Chapter 29: The Slytherin Invasion

Wednesday Draco didn't get much done for he'd spent the entire day going through a list of things that could go wrong. Around two he went home and dressed with the utmost care and after wrapping the gift he'd gotten during lunch he apparated to Parkinson Manor where they would floo over to '_The Anatheum_' where the dinner would be held. Ginny had owled him earlier that it was a party to welcome the baby into the family and so it would be held in Hermione's house as the baby was still to young to be taken out for too long and to dress casually.

He knocked on the door of Parkinson Manor apprehensively, hoping that Pansy had decided to be nice. He was admitted by The Butler almost immediately and he walked into the study where Bea threw herself at him. "Do I look pretty?"

"Yes, you do." Draco said laughing and lifting her up long enough to kiss her cheek and indeed she did, she was wearing pale pink dress robes with little roses sewn all along the bottom some tendrils reaching up into the bodice; her hair was in pigtails, her brown curls so smooth and perfect that she almost seemed like a little doll. He looked up to see Pansy looking very beautiful in a dark blue robe that he knew must have been very expensive, however the pout she wore and crossed arms ruined the effect and he sighed, _this is going to end in thrown hexes_. Terry was sitting in an armchair wearing dress pants and a polo shirt not unlike what Draco was wearing although he managed to look much less formal.

"Oh. You _did_ get my owl," He said to Terry.

"Yeah," he said catching Benji whom he'd just tossed in the air. "She insisted on dressing the children up." In fact, Benji was also wearing a fancy robe in a blue matching his mother's.

Draco moved away from the door pulling Bea along with him to allow Theus and Dan into the room as he'd just heard them enter the house arguing lightly about beams and signals; he assumed they were talking about the project.

Dan walked in wearing a short black dress that seemed very comfortable and Theus entered wearing jeans and a dress shirt. Bea threw herself at Theus as he walked in and he caught her midair as she posed the same question she'd asked Draco.

"So, is everyone ready?" Draco asked.

"Yeah," Dan said and gesturing with a hand that held a large shopping bag, "give me the box I'll put it in here." Draco handed her the gift he'd been holding and Terry pushed another box into her arms. "Hey, watch it." Dan said to him as she juggled the boxes and dropped them in the bag.

Draco took a deep breath and threw some floo powder into the fireplace and stepped out in the Anatheum.

He was already familiar with the floo room and so he sat down on one of the chairs and waited for the others to arrive. Pansy flowed out of the fireplace with a haughty look that fell quickly upon noticing the small room and Draco lounging comfortably on the chair.

"Where are we?"

"The Floo Room."

"The Floo Room?" She asked heavily next to Draco setting Benji's travel bag down next to her feet.

"I've noticed they're all a bit paranoid," Draco commented.

Terry walked through carrying Benji holding a blanket over his face which he removed as he sat down. Theus stepped through carrying Bea who jumped down and ran to her mother who fussed over her robes, smoothing them with a quick wave of the wand and fixing her pigtails. When Dan stepped through Draco rose and knocked on the door. Everyone else stood as well, the haughty disgusted look returning to Pansy's face. The door was opened by Ron who upon noticing who was on the other side exclaimed, "Bugger and blast, it's a Slytherin Invasion!"

Terry quickly spoke up, "I was a Ravenclaw."

Dan added, "I'm American."

A redhead with a scared face behind Ron laughed and Draco said impatiently, "Weasley, are you going to let us in or do you want to admire us for a bit longer?"

Ron hesitated but upon being poked in the shoulder by the other man he opened the door wider and stepped aside, "Welcome" he said without any enthusiasm.

The Floo room had been very silent and obviously it had a silencing charm on it because when they stepped into the hallway there were many voices that drifted around the house.

Across the hallway from them was a room filled with women and they all turned their heads to see who'd entered the house. He only recognized a few of them from their school years and looked around expectantly for Ginny.

"Ginny and Hermione are in the kitchen," Ron said walking down the hallway the group followed him and saw the other redhead duck into a room that was obviously a library with a few other redheads. Harry was heard saying, "I can't believe he has the nerve to", but they all ignored it and followed silently into the kitchen which was very large but as it already contained eight people at the arrival of eight more it was more than a little cramped.

Ginny's face lit up upon seeing him and walking around the kitchen table at which sat Penny, Fleur and the Midwife all cooing over a child in a bassinet that was sitting in the middle of the table, she gave him a quick peck on the lips. Ron made a gagging sound and headed back into the hallway. Ginny quickly hugged Dan and Theus and turned around and said brightly "everyone this is Prometheus Parkinson and Daniela Harris, everyone calls them Theus and Dan, they're to blame for my dating Draco." Then she realized she wasn't sure who everyone there was and turned to Pansy, "I'm guessing you're Pansy Parkinson?"

Pansy's whose haughty look had returned to her face, and somehow managed to look imposing even while holding Benji who knew better than to try to pull his mother's hair, gave her a glare and said icily, "Pansy _Boot_."

"Oh my God!" Ginny exclaimed and went around and hugged Terry, "I didn't recognize you with that beard, how are you?"

"Will you kindly take your paws of my husband?"

"Pansy," Terry threatened, "don't mind her she's a bit upset about…anyway" he pulled Bea who was clinging to his left arm forward, "this is our daughter Beatrice, we call her Bea and that" he pointed at Pansy, "is Benjamin, Benji for short, we're fond of nicknames," he laughed.

Molly rushed forward, "Aaaww what a pretty little dress," she said taking hold of Bea's hand who looked questioningly at her mother who nodded softly, "let's go outside with the rest of the children, all the grandpa's are out there telling stories, mmm, you might get that pretty little dress dirty why don't we go upstairs and find some of Will's clothes I'm sure he's left lots of them here."

The two disappeared up the steps and the silence that filled the room grew just a tad uncomfortable when Ginny spoke up, "come on Terry, I'm sure Harry and Neville will be glad to see you, they're in the library."

"I'll come too, I'm curious to see it," Dan said hurriedly, "it looked massive when we walked past."

"I'll come too," Theus followed the three out of the room

"I guess its every man for himself, huh," Draco chuckled stiffly.

"We don't bite," Hermione said from the stove where she was stirring something, "sit down and enjoy yourselves," she was interrupted by Ginny rushing into the room and looking around only to find things exactly as she'd left them.

"Oh, you're getting on," she said and smiled.

"Everyone really needs to calm down, we're all adults here and if you made it past Ron safely then there's really nothing to worry about," Hermione said looking at Draco with a hesitant smile. She turned to Pansy and smiled, "Pansy, do take a seat it must be exhausting carrying that child about all day."

"I'm fine, it's only been a short while," she said standing up even straighter.

Molly and Bea returned with Bea wearing a pair of faded jeans, a striped red and gold t-shirt, and what must have been the rattiest sneakers known to man, Pansy grimaced. Molly gestured to Pansy; "if you'll hand him over I'll put him in the playpen outside with the other little ones."

Pansy handed the small boy over fearfully and Molly bounced him on her hip as she opened the door to the backyard, the boy giggled and they all disappeared out the door.

Pansy seemed to deflate a little and stepped closer to Draco who now had an arm thrown around Ginny. "Pansy, please take a seat," Hermione repeated pointing to a chair next to Mrs. Smith who was clearly amused by the goings on around her. Pansy sat her back straight and sneered.

* * *

Pansy sat there wondering what she was doing, it was really hard to be mean to people who were so determined to be nice. She wondered if Terry hadn't been right. Last night he'd lectured her about judging people, but it was the principle of it. Things had changed so much after the war, even for her, whose family hadn't been involved. It seemed that the very last bit of normalcy was slipping Weasleys just didn't mix with the upper crust of society, specially Malfoys.

Hermione turned around from her stirring and gestured to the woman that stood at a counter dicing something, "that's my mother Jane Granger," then turning she gestured at the dark haired woman who sat silently at the other end of the table, "that's Penny Weasley you might remember her from school she was a prefect our first three years." She pointed at the blonde next to her, she really was striking, one of the most beautiful she'd ever met, she knew exactly who she was, "This is Fleur, she was the Beuxbatons contestant our fourth year."

"I know who she is," Pansy said, "I'm just surprised you've managed to trick her into coming here."

"Well, it would be hard to keep me away from my new nephew," Fleur said, her French accent much gentler now and Pansy couldn't help but be annoyed that they'd managed to have such a beautiful woman as a family member, although the contained amusement with which Fleur said it grated on her nerves and she was further resolved to dislike this whole family.

She turned to the woman next to her and cooed, "Midwife Smith, how are you doing? It's been a while since we've talked, how is your daughter I heard she was with child."

"Well, Pansy, it's nice to see you haven't lost your manners entirely," the woman admonished, "my daughter gave birth on Friday to a lovely little girl," the old woman smiled, "will you be in need of my services soon?"

"Oh no!" Pansy was horrified at the thought, "the two I have are enough of a handful."

"It is such a shame," the old woman, "you've had the easiest births I've ever witnessed."

"That's only because my children couldn't wait to wreck havoc upon the world." Pansy complained.

She looked over to the door where Draco had been standing only to see that they'd both he and the little slut had disappeared and left her all alone, with these _women_. She felt extremely uncomfortable and smiled thinly at them all, she didn't know why she'd agreed to come, she should've stayed home, she was the only one that obviously didn't fit in, even Terry had abandoned her.

"Pansy," Hermione was talking to her again and she turned up from her hands to look at the woman who stood before her. She'd only seen her in passing in Diagon Alley and hadn't paid her much attention; she hadn't changed much, although her hair seemed less wild than at school. She was wearing jeans and a pretty blue blouse. She had real diamond stud earrings and wore a necklace although the pendent disappeared down her shirt and she was unable to see what it was, she sounded hesitant now, but determined. "Terry is a muggleborn."

Pansy scoffed, apparently life with a Weasley had dull her brain, "I'm aware of that."

"Why did you marry him?" She asked and her mother turned from her cooking for the first time and really looked at Pansy making her uncomfortable.

Pansy answered contemptuously, "because he'd got me up the duff and I had no other choice." The women in the room all gasped and Pansy smirked they were all so easy, the goody-two-shoes. "And I was in love with him," she added kindly, she didn't want to be blamed for any heart attacks.

"But, I thought you all hated muggleborns," Hermione said belligerently.

"No, Granger, we all hated _you_," Pansy said noting how her mother put her hand on her shoulder when she stiffened, "for being such a know-it-all. We had plenty of muggle-borns and half-bloods in Slytherin; otherwise the house would have been quite empty." She noticed the surprise in Granger's eyes. "There were ever only a few families that were really anti-muggle like the Malfoys and Notts and even then it was understood that it didn't extend to people in Slytherin. Although to be honest if my parents had been alive I never would have been allowed to date Terry much, less marry him." At that time Pansy was glad that the attention was drawn away from her to Molly who entered the kitchen and headed over to Hermione.

"Sweetheart, how goes the stirring?" She asked gently as if afraid to hurt her feelings.

Fleur leaned over conspiratorially and whispered, "the poor girl can barely boil water, Ron does all the cooking." Pansy smiled; _maybe this won't be so bad after all_.

* * *

Bea clung on to the old woman, Molly beside her who was carrying Benji and was chattering away about all her grandchildren that Bea would play with, but Bea wasn't sure; she could see a very large play pen at the far end of the yard where four babies were running around. There were three boys sitting in front of three old men. _I'm the only girl_, she was horrified, _boys are stupid, this won't be fun!_ She let go of the old woman and crossed her arms over her chest. Molly put her hand at her back and pushed her over to where the _boys_ where sitting. They turned when they heard them behind them and she stuck her tongue out at them. The biggest of them, a boy with red hair like Molly, stuck his tongue out at her as well.

"William Weasley!" The old woman reprimanded him, "Mind your manners!" Then she said, "This is Bea Boot"

"Beatrice," Bea spoke up, this was her chance to be called to be called something different, "or Trish for short, _everyone_ calls me that," she looked up at Molly hoping she'd understand.

The woman smiled, "of course, how silly of me to have forgotten, everyone this is Trish Boot, and this is her little brother Benji and they're going to join us for dinner." She pushed Bea, no, Trish forward, then pointing at the boys sitting on the ground she said "you've already met Will, and next to him is Jim Hurst, he's a friend," the boy scowled at her, "and this is George, he's my grandson as well," George smiled brightly and waved, she smiled at George and the woman headed to the playpen with Benji.

_Trish_ turned to the old men and said "Hi," she was a little scared she'd never met so many different people before.

"Hello," one man with lots of grey hair said to her, "come sit down we were just telling the boys here about the Muggle world."

Trish walked forward trying to stand straight like her mother always did, "I already know all about the Muggle world, my grandpa's a Muggle and my uncle Theus is the best electrician and he invented the Electrifier."

"Did he?" Another man, this one with big glasses and hardly any hair at all asked, he seemed very excited.

"Of _course_," Trish _never_ lied, he should believe her, "you can even ask him yourself, he's inside."

The old man stood up and ran into the house.

"You've gone and chased Grampa Arthur away," the boy who'd stuck his tongue out at her, Will, said, "and now he won't finish the story."

"We can finish it," said the other man whose head was covered with hair although not as much as the first man who was chuckling, "Edward here is a Muggle so he knows all about cars, right?" Edward nodded. The man continued, "anyway in the engine there are little creatures called Gremlins, they are very ugly, and tiny and they mess with everything."

"That's not true," Trish said crossing her arms, "there's nothing in engines but metal things and wires, my grandpa showed me."

"Leo is a newspaper man, he knows everything," Will said standing up to face her, "if he says there's Gremlins, there's Gremlins, right Grampa Edward?"

Edward looked nervous then said, "They're both right, Aunt Hermione told me that there are Gremlins, we Muggles just can't see them 'cause they're magical." Will stuck his tongue out at her and she was going to do it as well but Edward said, "_Will_," like when you're about to get in trouble with a grown-up so she just made a face and sat next to George who was nice and gave her a big smile again when she sat, she smiled back. M_aybe all boys aren't bad, after all Daddy and Uncle Theus and Uncle Draco are all boys_.

* * *

A/N: Wednesday, May 24, 2004. Hope the change in point of views wasn't too confusing. For this chapter I used a website: it has all these slang British words, you should go there, anyway, "up the duff" means pregnant and Pansy was 3 months pregnant when she and Terry got married. Edward is Hermione's father, Leo is Luna's dad. 


	30. Freddy Weasley?

Chapter 30: Freddy Weasley?

Hermione heard Fleur whisper, "the poor girl can barely boil water, Ron does all the cooking." She turned around to defend herself, boiling water was in fact the only thing she could do, but she saw Pansy smile and relax a little and so she decided to let it go. After all she'd already done enough arguing for one day, she really shouldn't have put Pansy on the spot but it was a bit irritating to see her standing there with her muggle-born husband when all she'd done was torment Hermione when they were girls. She heard her son start to fuzz and looked at the clock, it was time for his meal and nap. She excused herself and grabbed the basinet; she was on the second step when she saw Arthur run into the house like a small child and smiled as Molly reprimanded him. She went up the stairs slowly; she was terrified she'd drop her child.

She'd only been a mother for four days and was still terrified. She'd convinced her own mother to stay with her for a few weeks while she got the hang of things and was glad she'd done so, if only because it seemed that she over reacted just a little to normal things. The first night she had gotten up in the middle of the night just to make sure he was breathing, she had a mirror underneath his little nose when her mother came in wearily and called her a nutter. It didn't really offend her, after all Ron was always telling her that anyway. She passed the T.V. room and saw through the half opened door Draco and Ginny cuddled into a corner talking she walked past into the baby's room and sat down in the rocking chair to nurse her tiny son.

She was still amazed by every thing about him, she just couldn't believe that she'd been carrying this little person around inside of her for eight months. He had tiny little hands and feet and he smelled amazing and she thought that even if she'd never heard of Hogwarts; just having given birth to this exquisite creature would have let her know that magic did indeed exist. He fell asleep soon after drinking his fill and she placed him inside his crib, she just stood there watching him, his little chest rising and falling so gently that if she hadn't been watching out for it she wouldn't have noticed.

She turned on the baby monitor and grabbed the hand held piece remembering how Ron had played with it when they'd first gotten it a few months ago, pretending they were walkie-talkies and running around the house, telling her things he saw and making her guess what room he was in. They'd been a gift from her mother at their private baby shower. Her mother had wanted to throw her a Baby Shower but when she'd mentioned the idea to Molly the witch hadn't been able to understand the purpose, they'd always celebrated the birth of children not the pregnancy, so her mother had taken her out for dinner and they'd had their own little baby shower, just the two of them.

She walked into the library and saw Arthur and Theus Parkinson in an intense conversation on the couches to the left and she smiled, remembering how Ginny had been terrified at the idea of those two ever meeting just a few months ago. She walked to the railing and looked down to see everyone milling about chatting happily. Almost immediately Ron looked up from where he'd been showing Terry his pride and joy, the broom belonging to the Keeper Byrd Bowne, who'd played the very last time the Chudley Cannons had won the league in 1892. He smiled at her and she smiled back amazed at how he always seemed to know when she was near, she threw him a kiss and walked over to her desk which was situated right above Ron's desk. She pulled open a drawer and pulled out a few pieces of parchment. She took a deep breath and left the library and entered the T.V. room in time to see Draco and Ginny snogging.

"This is a family event," Hermione said amused as they pulled apart like two teenagers caught in the library by Madam Pince.

"Herms, what do you want?" Ginny asked irritated.

"Just shocked at your audacity at inviting all these Slytherins to a house full of Gryffindors only to abandon them to go snog."

"We were just catching up, we haven't seen each other in days," Ginny said leaning against Draco. Hermione rolled her eyes although she was really happy for Ginny. For the last six years she'd gone around looking lost, dating guys right and left and now for the first time she seemed content and Hermione wanted to help keep her that way. She sat down on the other end of the couch.

She looked at the couple and began, "Malfoy…"

She was interrupted by Ginny, "_Draco._"

"_Draco_," she began leave it to Ginny to make something hard harder, "you were right."

"Of course I was right," he said smugly, "I'm always right…What was I right about this time?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and handed over a report. "On Monday I went in to the office to check up on things and I talked to Robert Webster, he was your inspector only to find out that he'd passed your company's inspection in December." Hermione paused, "Either way I sent someone else in," she nodded at the report in his hand, "that's what they came up with. Your facilities exceeded the minimum requirements, you're off the hook."

"What?" Draco was baffled, "It was that easy?"

"No, it wasn't, because you're in big trouble," she said.

"How!"

"Not with us," Hermione quickly said, "but someone went to a lot of trouble to set you up after talking with Robert I was concerned so I did a spell detection charm and he'd been Obliviated. The Obliviators couldn't help though, they were able to detect the new memories but the originals were so well erased that it was impossible to retrieve them. A professional did it and-"

"I know who it was," he said calmly, "It was Sam Aldred."

Hermione wondered if she'd heard correctly, but still couldn't see how that was possible, "Sam Aldred is dead."

"No, Sam Aldred Obliviated a few people into thinking he was dead," Draco irritably and muttered "she's alive and well."

_She?_ "If you knew all along then why didn't you bring us this information sooner?"

"I only found out on Monday, besides I believe it was on someone's else's orders and I still have to figure out where those bank statements came from," he frowned, "my accountants have been going crazy but so far they haven't found _anything_ wrong with our records there's not so much as a penny missing."

"Well, I can help you there too," she handed over the rest of the papers in her hands, "those are copies of the statements we were owled. The owl used was from the Owl Office in Diagon Alley and the clerk couldn't remember anyone having come in that morning at all."

"I guess Sam's been busy." Draco said resentfully.

"I've seen a paper like this before," Ginny said sounding unsure.

"Where?" Draco asked cautiously, like he knew what she was going to say and Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"At my old job," she said and Hermione noticed how triumphant Draco looked, "but…it had different names, foreign ones."

"I knew it," Draco said darkly, "it had to be Mentis."

"Mentis?" Hermione asked, "as in Bernard Mentis?" At their nod, "why?"

Draco opened his moth but Ginny spoke first, "because he's a lying, greedy bastard."

"That," Draco nodded enthusiastically, "and because he'll be out business soon thanks to me and The Electrifier."

"Theus is right, that _is_ an annoying name." Ginny grimaced.

Hermione held back a laugh at Draco's look of shock he seemed to decide it wasn't worth it, "It's all right, now that I know that somewhere out there's proof I'll get in contact with Luke and he'll take care of it all."

"Luke?" Ginny asked.

"Luke Derring, my lawyer."

"I've met him," Hermione said, "he's a friend of Sarah's." Upon hearing that he was familiar with yet another Muggle-born Hermione realized that something had been bothering her all week and decided to confront him about it. "For months I've been hearing about how much you've changed and I see proof of that everywhere, except when you got angry at me on Friday what you called me," she paused she didn't even like to think about that word it seemed that after the war she thought she'd never be faced with these dilemmas again. They've fought the bad guys and won; the world was now safe for all minorities, mostly she thought angrily of how hard it had been to do the little she had for the Werewolves and how hard her department was still working against the prejudice that permeated the wizarding world.

"I didn't mean it," Draco said looking guilty for the first time ever, "it's just, you got me angry and I guess all the times we fought in school it was my fallback and in the moment, I-I don't know I had a flashback or something."

"Oh," Hermione thought it sounded plausible enough, she still called the Professors at Hogwarts by their titles out of habit, "Pansy said the reason she and her friends dislike me was more because I was a 'know-it-all' than because I was a Muggle-born, was that true for you as well?"

"No," He said and Hermione's heart crashed down for some reason it had made her feel hopeful that they'd teased her because of something personal rather than something that she couldn't help, "it was more that you were friends with Potter."

And she looked up surprised, "what?"

"If you'll remember correctly before you started hanging around that wanker I didn't even give you a second look," he shrugged.

She looked at him astounded but before she could process the information she heard her baby make a sound and she ran out of there quickly to reach his side.

* * *

Ron escaped the kitchen and returned to the library where all of his friends were lounging and talking about their day at work. Except for Percy everyone was very happy as well because they had been able to leave work just a little early to welcome the new Weasley child into the world. Ron was currently sitting at his desk leaning back studying the room before him. Harry was currently discussing the current Minister with Jeffery Eaton and Raphael Foss, two of Hermione's best employees all the while trying to avoid the fact that Jeff was pressed up against Raphael. Ron suppressed a laugh and turned away in time to see his sister drag the 'Ravenclaw' into the room followed by the 'American' and Parkinson. 

Ginny dragged them over to Harry and introduced the 'Ravenclaw' to Harry who immediately grinned shook the man's hand eagerly curious Ron walked over to them. Ginny just ran back out of the room and he rolled his eyes, _probably couldn't bear to be apart from her precious Malfoy_.

"Ron, mate," Harry called out to him, "you'll never guess who this is!"

"Who?" Ron asked peering at the man quizzically, he had brown hair and a beard that covered most of his lower face. His eyes were a dark shade of blue and he couldn't remember ever having met him.

"This is Terry," Harry said enthusiastically, "Terry Boot!"

Remembering Ron could feel his eyes widening, "what are you doing with this lot?"

For a second he was afraid he'd insulted him but Terry merely laughed and said, "Well, I married Pansy so I'm stuck with this lot." Parkinson gently smacked his arm and Ron felt as if the floor had been pulled out from under him. Terry laughed again and turned to Parkinson, "this is Theus, Pansy's older brother and that's his girlfriend, Dan Harris." The woman smiled widely and grabbed Theus' arm.

Just then it seemed as the volume in the room got a little louder and he turned to see several women enter the room obviously the ladies had seen the new guests enter and had decided to come and investigate for themselves. Ron was glad to pull back and watch the others interact, thinking about everything that had happened so far. The round of introductions went around, everyone seeming to remember Terry and then he saw his older brothers talking to Theus shaking hands smiling obviously familiar with the man and he realized that they must have known each other in school. Then with a horrible feeling a memory long buried came back to him and he too remembered Theus Parkinson.

_It was his first year and it was only the second day of school. He'd somehow managed to lose Harry in a crowd on their way back to the tower from Charms and he stood there now in a deserted corridor wondering which way to go. It was almost dinnertime and his stomach was reminding him that he should forget about the tower and find a way down to the Great Hall, but he still had absolutely no idea where to go._

_He was fighting tears when he heard a whistling down the hall and ran down after it. He didn't care who it was as long as he was pointed in the right direction. He saw a blond haired boy strolling down the hall his hands in his pocket his mind somewhere else entirely and he ran up to him and pulled on his sleeve the boy turned looking surprised and Ron sighed with relief at the sight of the Head Boy badge pinned to his school robes. The boy didn't give him directions, no he did one better he walked him right to the Great Hall. Ron was so happy he had to stop himself from hugging the older boy but he remembered the sinking feeling he felt when upon entering the Great Hall the boy quickly walked to the Slytherin table and sat down amongst what were obviously his friends. Ron walked over to the table where Harry had saved a seat for him and quickly set about forgetting that he'd just met a _nice_ Slytherin._

Now he stood there watching as his older brothers all talked with him, laughing as if her were a long, lost friend and he wondered how strictly they'd actually meant it when they'd warned him about the Slytherins, if maybe all these years he hadn't been really thick to believe that all Slytherins were evil gits just because Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson had made it their life to torment him in school. Then pushing away that regret he remembered that it _was_ Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson who were now invading his home, his family.

He came back to himself in time to see his father rush into the room and practically attack Parkinson who along with his girlfriend was talking with a very excited Angelina and an amused Fred.

"Ron, Terry here was just wondering about the broom," Harry said and Ron came back to himself telling Terry all about The Bowne Broom as he was fond of calling it. He felt eyes on him and looked up to see Hermione smiling at him he smiled back and returned to the conversation where Terry managed to be the first human to actually understand the importance of Quidditch History.

It was a little later that Ron found his stomach rumbling and as if his body had been attuned to the whole idea of dinner he heard his mother announce that it was ready. Ushering the others out of the room he pulled over one of the many small tables in the room to the centre and enlarged it. He conjured a few small chairs stepped back when Luna walked in holding a little girl's hand while telling her and the boys trailing behind her a story. He walked to the corner of the room where he conjured a large crib and stepped back in time to see the various women walking in carrying babies and stepping to place them in the crib. Parkinson's girlfriend, _Dan_, he thought her name was walked in carrying one of the twins and placed him gently down then pulling out her wand she waved in a complicated pattern until the whole room glowed a faint orange and then turned to Angelina looking smug. Ron waved to Luna sympathetically as she'd volunteered to watch over the younger children as they ate dinner and walked out of the library behind Pansy and Fleur who were chatting amiably about robes, he turned to see Angelina hug Dan and shook his head at how quickly things had changed.

He walked into the dinning room to see that the room was already bustling with activity. His mother had obviously managed to get everyone, family or not to bring dishes of food into the room that Hermione had already enlarged earlier that day. Their dining was already quite large housing a table that sat 16 people, but this morning Hermione had enlarged it so that two tables of such size fit in the room. As people set down their dish they would choose a seat and Ron noticed that except for a few chairs the tables were going to be filled with people. He made his way to the top of one of the tables where he sat on one of the side chairs not liking to have people look at him as he ate; he left the head of the table empty for Hermione.

She walked in a few minutes later carrying their son's basinet. He rushed to help her set it on the base it had come with next to her chair and he kissed her on the lips quickly unable to hide his happiness. She smiled at him and sat down and he was so relieved that she was safe and healthy. When she'd first broached the subject of having a child he'd been completely against it, knowing that because of the damage she'd sustained during the final battle it would be a difficult pregnancy for her, but she'd been insistent and he'd finally given in as he so often did when up against her, but he was glad because he'd never been so happy as when he'd held his son in his arms. He smiled at him as he was staring up with his wide blue eyes at his grandmother Jane who was cooing at him. The boy had been born with a lot of hair of a light brown colour and a tiny nose which had made Ron sigh in relief as his large nose was the part of his body he hated the most.

He now felt Hermione grip his hand and squeeze and he heard the noise around him lessen which told him that it was time. They rose from their seats simultaneously and he walked over to stand beside her, putting his arm around her waist.

"Thank you all so much for coming here today," Hermione said clearly and Ron bit back the comment that rose up now, _why wouldn't they have, they got a free meal and to skip work early_. "I know we've been very secretive about the baby's name, but we only just agreed last night."

"This morning," Ron said unable to help himself and everyone laughed.

Hermione huffed, "this morning. We finally decided to just follow his brother's examples and honour someone in the family."

"Before you say anything else," Fred said standing up, "I just want to say thank you, I know how wonderful I am and am quite pleased to take young Freddy there under my wings and-" he stopped as his wife dragged him back down to his seat.

"Sorry Fred, but we didn't want our child to grow up to be a poncy git." Ron said apologetically.

"Regardless," Hermione said seriously, "we decided that we wanted to thank our friend Harry very much for bringing us together all those years ago when he just _had_ to save me from a runaway troll." Everyone laughed and Harry got a little red.

"Unfortunately," Ron started and looked at Harry, "Harry Weasley sounds horrible." He noticed as Harry looked a little disappointed and Sally kissed his cheek for comfort. "So we only made it his middle name." Harry cheered up considerably. "The other man we decided to thank might just have been the most important overlooked character in the whole of the wizarding world." Everyone now looked a little confused and Ron turned to his left and said earnestly, "I would personally like to thank Edward Granger for convincing his beautiful wife," he winked at Jane, "to allow Hermione to attend Hogwarts, if it hadn't been for him who knows how the world would've turned out. I for one would've been miserable." The smile that crossed Edward's face was so large that Ron was afraid he would pull a muscle.

"And so," Hermione continued, "we present Edward Harry Weasley."

Everyone clapped and cheered and Ron raised his voice over the mind numbing sound and declares, "Let's Eat."

"Ronald!" Hermione admonished but followed his example and sat down. Ron looked around at all the smiling faces, especially his sister who was now giggling maniacally at something Draco was whispering to her and he shrugged. If this is what having them be a part of the family would be like he couldn't complain. He looked up to see Edward giving him another large grin tears in the corners of his eyes and more than a little disturbed he turned to his plate which Hermione had loaded with food and worked on getting it all down.

* * *

A/N: Wednesday, May 24, 2004. By the way if you go back all the way to the first chapter you'll see she comes across a bank statement, that's what she's talking about here, _proof_ that I always had a plan. 


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